Dir - William Castle
"Would you like to see one of those heads?"
I fucking love this movie. Yes it features Vincent Price who I could watch watch paint dry, but it is also a haunted house film which is a sub-genre that I can rightfully call my favorite. I have always adored the old “Spooky Sounds of the Haunted House” records and the Haunted Mansion in Disney World, (easily still the best thing in any amusement park), and House On Haunted Hill fits nicely into this somewhat lighthearted category. Though I guess it is a tad more gruesome as there is a severed head, a concealed pool of acid, and a brutal hanging. Yet as is the case with most of these creepy camp fests, Haunted Hill is more spooky than scary and a whole lot of fun at being so. So I recommend microwaving some popcorn, (and preferably around Halloween), treating yourself to Lord Price at his black and white best.
29. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
Dir - James Whale
Angry villagers unite!
There is no “best horror movies” list without Frankenstein, pure and simple. What is crazier is that James Whale, Boris Karloff, and co would even one-better themselves with the sequel Bride of Frankenstein four years later. For the first go, Whale ushers in so much iconic horror movie imagery that it is impossible to imagine what the genre would look like without the man’s influence. Mad scientists playing god, crazy lightning powered laboratories, hunchbacked assistants, hulking monsters, and dark, gloomy settings are all conventions through and through and they were all either straight-up invented or perfected here. Of course, Karloff’s “uncanny” breakthrough performance as the monster is what got him the moniker and Jack Pierce’s legendary make-up forever solidified the flat-topped, bolts-in-the-neck look of the Frankenstein Monster. There is plenty more to applaud, (excellent performances from both Colin Clive and Edward Van Sloan, the films fortunate lack of a musical score, the monster’s reveal, Whale’s expertly low-key direction of the more horrific scenes, etc), but really, everyone should have seen this by now so I assume I am preaching to the choir.
Dir - Roger Corman
"There is no other god! Satan killed him!"
The film that Entombed sampled twice in one song, Masque of the Red Death is the very finest Edgar Allan Poe adaptation that Roger Corman and Vincent Price made together in the early sixties. Price’s Prince Pospero, (try saying that three times fast), is probably the evilest villain that the horror icon ever portrayed. At the very least, he is certainly the most Satanic. Speaking of the Lord of Darkness, he is all up in this one. Both Price and the bosomly Hazel Court act as his loyal servants who keep their wealthy and degenerate guests “safely” locked inside their castle as the Red Death lays waste to the land outside. Future filmmaker extraordinaire Nicolas Roeg is also on hand as the cameraman, as is Miss-Almost-Paul-McCartney Jane Asher as Price/Pospero’s innocent corruptee’. There is a little bit of Poe’s “Hop Frog” and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam’s, (however the hell you say that), “Torture By Hope” thrown in to help flesh-out the rather unfilmable "Masque" story and the whole affair goes down nice and gloomy. Being the penultimate in the series, Corman and Price were near the end of their tenure with Poe homages and thankfully there was enough awesome left to produce such a classic.
Dir - Alfred Hitchcock
They do far more than shit on cars
The Birds has always been my favorite Hitchcock film. It makes sense really as it checks off more than one preference of mine. First off, there is no musical score as all we get is cawing, the flapping of wings, and the terrified cries of the bird’s victims during those attack scenes. The horror is only hinted at at first, but once it takes center stage, the whole mood of the film changes completely and no explanation at all is given as to what we have just seen. Birds start killing people, that is it. The fact that rats with wings inherently creep me out anyway may also help the premise getting under my skin nice and proper. Hitchcock films have been dissected and re-dissected by movie nerds countless times, so I am not going to bother doing that now. There are plenty of intense, masterfully directed moments here, with the “army” of seagulls gathering their troops at the playground being chief among them. Overall, this represents a master at his most masterful.
26. HALLOWEEN (1978)
Dir - John Carpenter
Party time! Excellent!
As I stated earlier, I am not a slasher movie fan. I am also not really a fan of the Halloween franchise, though I have only seen John Carpenter and Rob Zombie’s one and two respectfully, with Zombie’s being two of the worst films in the history of anything. Also as I have stated earlier though, I am fully able to give credit where credit is due. The original Halloween was a mother fucker when it was released; an expertly directed, (and scored) classic that has since become unanimously regarded as the be-all end-all slasher film. After that fantastically unsettling opening scene, (perhaps the creepiest POV camera work ever), the movie gradually kicks back up the tension and body count as Mr. Myers stalks Jamie Lee Curtis and her slutty high school chums all Hallows Eve long. I am sure everyone has seen this by now, (my dad was the one who introduced me to it back in Jr. High), and though I loathe the sub-genre it forever defined, Carpenter rightfully became a horror legend here.
Dir - Dario Argento
The slashing is profound
Dario Argento’s Deep Red, (originally titled Profondo Rosso), is the ultimate giallo film. He had already made three psychological thrillers in that same surreal, deliciously Italian style, (the “animal trilogy” of Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Cat O’ Nine Tails, and Four Flies On Grey Velvet, all of them noteworthy), and he would continue to make many more. Yet Red is several cuts above the rest, pardon the pun. Both the acting and script are the best and tightest he would ever work with, contributing leaps and bounds since Argento films have never been known to feature excellence in either category. One of the best “jump out of your seat” moments of all time is in this film and all the death scenes are the usual high, bloody quality both Argento and giallo movies are generally known for. This is also the first soundtrack by the mighty Goblin, who provide a typically great, more prog-filled score here then their utterly perfect and bone-chilling work on Susperia. Along with that said film, Deep Red also ranks as Argento’s high-water mark, proving the mid-seventies was truly the “Italian Hitchcock’s” time to shine.
Dir - Douglas Hickox
Dr. Phibes does King Lear
For the third time in a row, Vincent Price is out to get some bloody revenge. Theater of Blood recycles the plot from The Abominable Dr. Phibes, (even down to the beautiful assistant, Diana Rigg this time around), but instead of a zombified doctor hell-bent on murdering other doctors, this time it is Edward Lionheart, Shakespearean actor extraordinaire who is out to get all those bastardly critics who denied him a prestigious award. Yes the premise is that silly and yes it is that awesome. Whereas his dialogue was sparse and distorted in both the Phibes films, Price fans are in for the ultimate treat with Blood, as the greatest horror actor that will ever be is given a bona-fide buffet of scenery-chewing lines to work with. Each murder scene is more fiendishly clever than the last and each is based off the famous works of Shakespeare. Price gives it his all through and through, playing multiple “roles-within-a-role”, (his flamboyantly gay hair dresser is as great as it sounds). This really is THE Vincent Price role and one that the actor was destined to play as it is rather impossible to see any other performer in the part.
Dir - Jack Clayton
"Sometimes one can't help imagining things"
Physiological horror has rarely been done better than in The Innocents, an exceedingly atmospheric and triumphant example of the “less is more” approach to the ole spooky mansion movie. Few if any horror film shows so little yet leaves so much to ponder, constantly having us guessing as to what is “real” and what is imagined by the slowly unraveling psyche of our troubled Governess Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr). The “innocents” themselves Miles and Flora, (the latter of which is played by Pamela Franklin, who would have a staring turn some twelve years later in another haunted house classic and film on this list, The Legend of Hell House), are both charmingly angelic. This makes their growingly mischievous and possibly supernatural behavior all the more disturbing. The film is beautifully shot, (for which we have cinematographer/Hammer and Amicus director Freddie Francis to thank), and expertly chilling, all the while without being the least bit graphic. It is highly regarded as one of the best British horror excursions ever committed to celluloid and I am highly inclined to agree.
Dir - Ridley Scott
Haunted house in space
Outer space is a cold, desolate, and frightening place. So are gargantuan spaceships. This setting really should harvest more terrifying results in movies, but it is indeed difficult to be better than Alien. Ridley Scott, (a man whose career has produced some very uneven blockbusters over the decades), does his best work here, handling the action, the scares, and certainly the pacing impeccably. The first hour of Alien is pure suspense building, especially by now when we all know that inevitable “chestburster” scene is what really kicks things into full gear. There is a whole lot of “gotcha” moments along the way, but the slow boil and ultimately sparse use of screen time given the usually camouflaged alien gives the movie its most effective creepiness. H.R. Giger’s design work and Dan O’Bannon’s script are both brilliant and the recognizable cast is just as wonderful. Of course Dana Barrett herself Sigourney Weaver would stick around for several of these films, (James Cameron’s Aliens being an action classic in its own right), though she really only gets the spot light for the last supremely awesome twenty minutes or so here. Not that such a thing is a detriment mind you.
Dir - Robert Fuest
"Nine killed you...nine shall die! Nine eternities...in doom!"
The first that I ever heard about Lord Vincent Price’s most celebrated film was with its inclusion in one of my favorite childhood board games Creature Features, which is Monopoly with horror movies. Pretty cool right? The Abominable Dr. Phibes is the type of horror film that is impossible not to love. A horridly disfigured former doctor who is long presumed dead hammers away at an organ, eats and talks through a hole in his neck, and spends the entire movie elaborately murdering nine other doctors according to the ten plagues of Egypt. What is not to love? This is the kind of campy, ghoulish fun that Price relishes in and he makes Phibes his own, as well as one of the screen's most iconic horror villains. The formula worked so good here that Price took on two more films with an almost identical premise in the next two years, the following sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again and 1973’s Theater of Blood. Both are masterworks, but none more than this one.
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