32. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

32. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
(1956)
Directed by Don Siegel

When I was a youngster I had a recurring nightmare where I suddenly realized that all the adults in my little world- family, neighbors, teachers- were actually some unholy breed of inhuman zombies and this realization gave off a powerful scent that they detected and I was forced to run for my life through the streets, pursued relentlessly. After waking up with my heart pounding I'd lie there with the sheet pulled over my head, certain that my dream was a vision of the truth. I had my suspicions, as time went on, that this was a common bit of paranoid delusion and when I first saw "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" I felt validated. An alien race is replacing people with emotionless and soulless doubles and Dr. Miles (Kevin McCarthy) and his sweetheart (Dana Wynter) are on the run first in their 1955 Ford Sedan and then on foot. I don't know about you, but I think fear of mindless conformity is a healthy fear to have. Be very afraid! The pod people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" are ultra squares! It's a hipsters nightmare! "You fools, you're in danger!" "They're here already!" "You're next!", Pardon me while my hair stands on end... Made in typical breakneck B-movie fashion (a 19 day shoot) this is the best of the rash of invasion movies that proliferated across Drive-In screens in the fifties (other highly recommended notables of this variety are "Teenagers From Mars" (1959), "It Came From Outer Space" (1953), and "Invaders From Mars" (1953)). More than just a metaphoric outgrowth of the Red Scare, "Body Snatchers" is relevant in any society (or subculture, for that matter) where conformity is rigorously endorsed. Keep sticking pitchforks into those pods, keep kicking against the pricks and watch this flick every now and then to remind you why the effort is worth it.

33. BLOOD FEAST

33. BLOOD FEAST
(1963)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Yes, thee legendary first gore film and after 40 years it still retains it's irresistibly trashy charm. The villain, Fuad Ramses, runs a store and specializes in "Exotic Catering" but it's all just a front for his real purpose in life- to worship an ancient Egyptian goddess and murder young girls in her honor. The acting caliber is consistently on the Ed Wood Jr. level, complete with hapless cops, and that provides many unintentionally laugh out loud moments but the real attraction is the copious amounts of the red stuff. Victims have their legs hacked off, brains removed and tongues ripped out, all in lurid bloody color. One can only imagine what a shock this was to unsuspecting drive-in audiences at the time of it's release. I can't help but envision youngsters hanging out of their car doors to puke into the dirt. Nix that make-out session, sailor... There was really nothing to prepare folks for this kind of gruesome display. The whole shoestring affair is bolstered by an organ and kettle drum score provided by the multi-talented impresario behind this new wave in exploitation, Herschell Gordon Lewis. H.G. was paid homage by most exalted keepers of the cool, John Waters (with his early Divine vehicle "Multiple Maniacs"(1970)) and the Cramps (with their rockin' tune "I Ain't Nothin' But a Gorehound"). "Well, Frank, this looks like one of those long hard ones."

34. WHITE ZOMBIE

34. WHITE ZOMBIE
(1932)
Directed by Victor Halperin

Bela, Bela... There are five Bela Lugosi films on this list and this reveals my weakness for the tragic Hungarian actor. Doomed to eke out a living by making a series of truly awful movies through the 1940's and 50's and never fully escaping the role of Dracula that he became inexorably identified with, it's easy for folks to forget that Bela played more than the caped Count. His role as zombie master Murder Legendre in "White Zombie" is easily one of his best non-vampire turns. Made on what can fairly be called a meager budget in less than two weeks, it's the first zombie movie ever and a markedly atmospheric tale that unfolds in a morose and misty dreamsville. Do not expect anything approaching reality in this one. And you certainly shouldn't expect some authentic anthropological study of Vodoun. This is a slow and eerie spellcaster that exists in it's own fabricated realm filled with graveyard scenes, shuffling living dead, squawking vultures, waxy voodoo dolls and sinister villainy. Lugosi's character lives in a very European looking castle on a jagged shoreline in what is supposed to be Haiti where his new plaything is a freshly zombified woman (Madge Bellamy) whom he has cruelly called away on her wedding night. My favorite scene finds the distraught husband drowning his sorrows in a Haitian tavern where he hallucinates the image of his buried wife beckoning from beyond the clammy grave. Acting out this scene while imbibing in local redneck bars has done little to help me make new friends.

35. THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI

35. THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
(1919)
Director Robert Wiene

Here we have the oldest film on the list and it's the first true horror masterpiece. The silent era was a period of constant innovation as filmmakers wrestled with the constraints of the new medium and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" was a monstrous leap forward. It was completed in the bloody wake of the First World War when all manner of convention-smashing artistic waves came emanating off the ravaged European continent, from the cubism of Picasso to the dissonant musical experiments of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. "Caligari" found it's inspiration in the expressionistic movement and it's distinct style would have a huge influence on horror films to follow, especially the celebrated cycle of Universal monster movies made in the 1930's (particularly the Frankenstein pictures directed by James Whale). But none of those movies that followed dared to replicate the extreme appearance of Wiene's world. The action takes place in a dream landscape, filled with warped angular buildings and painted shadows intended to be visual manifestations of the disordered mind. This incredibly stylized universe is the backdrop for a yarn about a magician (Werner Krauss) and his star attraction the somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) who slumbers in a coffin shaped box. The magician sends his sleeping meal ticket on nocturnal missions to carry out murders. This is necessary viewing for any horror fan and ladies with morbid leanings are sure to swoon at the sight of the insect thin and strikingly handsome somnambulist.

36. PSYCHO

36. PSYCHO
(1960)
Director Alfred Hitchcock

There had been movies about human monsters before but this one hit the scene like an atom bomb and got a generation of nervous people thinking about knives while in the shower. The house on the hill where bad things happen is an old gothic trapping but "Psycho" was the explosive declaration of a new era of horror and a strong argument could be made that it's the most important such film of the century and yes, I do believe I've made this very proclamation at a bar or two down the way. Hitchcock was in the midst of his final cycle of important films (his career started way back in the silent era) that included "North by Northwest" (1959), "The Birds" (1963), and that genius masterwork of obsession, "Vertigo" (1958). There's a different kind of obsession going on in "Psycho". Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) can't accept the fact that his mother is dead so he keeps her mummified corpse around and talks in her voice. She tells him bad things. Poor Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) has no idea what kind of twisted mess she's stepped into when she decides to stay awhile in the Bates Motel. Graced by the usual high caliber of suspense one expects from Hitchcock and scored by legendary music man Bernard Herrmann, "Psycho" deserves it's lofty stature. This is also the movie that sparked my interest in taxidermy.

37. CEMETERY MAN

37. CEMETERY MAN
(1994)
Directed by Michele Soavi

This is the third and final movie from the 1990's to make my list (the other two being "Dead Alive" (1992) and "The Blair Witch Project" (1999)) and you might properly surmise that I don't consider this a particularly fruitful decade for horror films. "Se7en" (1995) was dark and interesting and "Scream" (1996) was a clever and thrilling ride but these are rare exceptions in a time period that left monster kids with a choice between a steady stream of yawn-inducing formula driven teen-oriented Hollywood horror and straight-to-video efforts from the likes of Troma and Full Moon. The latter were more subversive, ridiculous and entertaining, of course, but none can really compare to the grand mess that is "Cemetery Man". Directed by Argento apprentice Michele Soavi, it has assloads of visual flair and black humor. Rupert Everett stars as Francesco Dellamorte, cemetery caretaker, and for some reason the recently buried dead are clawing out of their graves and need to be dispatched a second time to stay down. Dellamorte tends to the problem with jaded precision but then things get complicated when a grieving widow with an erotic attraction to ossuaries played by jaw-dropping beauty Anna Falchi comes into his boneyard. The proceedings get increasingly strange until reality is abandoned altogether by the baffling final sequence. Nestled between the zombies and violence are moments of disarming visual beauty. A truly original movie from a disappointing decade.

38. THE BAD SEED

38. THE BAD SEED
(1956)
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Children can be nasty, can't they? Even seemingly sweet kids can be shockingly cruel to other children and, as we find out in "The Bad Seed", sometimes they can be dangerous to full grown adults as well. The notion that a kid can be born wicked is not a pleasant one for parents to consider but the truth is that children have been responsible for some ghastly crimes. How young is too young to be a sociopath? Little Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) is eight years old and when our story begins she's already killed at least once. "The Bad Seed" was first a novel and then it was adapted to the stage before being turned into this esteemed film version. Visually the movie is very simple and more often than not just seems like a taped version of a theatrical performance what with it's static camera shots, a plot driven almost entirely by dialogue and only a couple basic sets. Still, it's strength is it's story and the marvelously sinister/sweet performance by the young McCormack (who had also played the pig-tailed killer in the stage version). Especially delightful are the exchanges she has with creepy caretaker LeRoy (played with greasy acumen by Henry Jones) who makes the mistake of finding out too much about the little girl's crimes and gets burned alive by her as a result. I think part of my ongoing fondness for this movie is that it was released in the ultra-conservative family value 1950's and it shook people up. Shaking people up is important, after all, especially when they've been lulled into suburban complacency. Since "The Bad Seed" there have been many evil children movies but this, friends and nervous parents, is the original.

39. HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER

39. HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER
(1986)
Directed by John McNaughton

The true story of Henry Lee Lucas is a fucked bit of American Gothic. Dirt poor, he was horribly abused as a child by his drunken prostitute mother and legless stepfather, suffering brain damage and losing an eye in the process. In the midst of the abuses and humiliations he was introduced to necrophilia with a dead animal by one of his mother's clients at an early age. Evil had staked a claim on the young lad. He killed his mother, spent a few years in a Michigan prison and, after getting paroled, took to the road where he turned into a murder machine for the next eight years, teamed up with his lover, a bisexual pyromaniac named Otis Toole. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is the low budget cult classic that is loosely based on the exploits of Henry and Otis and it's a genuinely unsettling and extremely dark ride. Michael Rooker's portrayal of Henry is chilling and the violence is often so realistic that the movie takes on the distressing feel of a documentary or snuff film. I think most people watch horror movies to be entertained and to open the release valve on a variety of anxieties, mainly those concerning death, but movies like "Henry" offer paltry threads of solace and leave a person with little more than a lingering sense of trepidation. Therein lies it's rare power. Realistic horror like this forces us to confront awful realities without the consoling accoutrements of metaphor or myth. There are horrible monsters out there in the American night. Death can be waiting at the next interstate exit and that death could be horrible and painful. A memento mori from me to you.

40. THE SHINING

40. THE SHINING
(1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Well, now we have officially entered the top 40. How exciting. Time to pay a visit to the Overlook Hotel. Many folks who have spent a few winters in colder climates are likely familiar with that restless claustrophobic condition known as cabin fever. A deep snowbound winter can do funny things to a person. Sometimes you end up drinking more than usual and watching too much hockey. In the case of Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) you end up losing your mind completely and turning homicidal. Stanley Kubrick, given his penchant for slowly roving and eerie exploration of interior spaces, was a perfect choice to direct this adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Kubrick began his career with horror (as did both Coppola and Spielberg) and flirted with the horrific in many of his films, from the psycho robot Hal in "2001, a Space Odyssey" (1968) to the Beethoven-crazed hooligans in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971). But "The Shining" is his only full blown effort in the genre and quite an effort it was. The memorable images are legion: Jack limping along with his axe, the apparition of the murdered twins, Shelly Duvall screaming with kitchen knife in hand as Jack whacks his way through the door, blood spilling from the elevator in cascading splashes, the naked and cackling old woman and, of course, the terror of the snowy garden maze. Nicholson plays the part of the psychopath with an over the top intensity that recalls Dwight Frye and Vincent Price.

41. THE TINGLER

41. THE TINGLER
(1959)
Directed by William Castle

It was the late 1950's and there was a fear among filmmakers that the hypnotic blue glow of the television set was keeping too many kids away from the movie theatre. Exploitation genius William Castle was devoted to the task of filling seats and he embarked on a series of gimmicks to sell tickets to his films. It started in 1958 when he spread the word that he'd set up an insurance policy with Lloyds of London in case anyone died of fright while watching his movie "Macabre". The ruse worked, money rolled in and he followed it the next year with Emergo the flying skeleton in connection with "House on Haunted Hill" and then the ass shocking Percepto trick for "The Tingler". These gimmicks are detailed in loving fashion by John Waters in his essay "Whatever Happened to Showmanship?" (in short Percepto was nothing more than a couple electric buzzers delivered with the film canisters to be set up beneath random seats that could be activated to deliver a mild shock at strategic points in the movie). People loved it. Waters calls "The Tingler" "the fondest moviegoing memory of my youth" and, even without the thrill of being in a theatre of screaming kids, the movie remains highly entertaining. There are a lot of good reasons to watch this one. It stars Vincent Price, features the cinema's first ever LSD sequence and the tingler itself (a creature that grows on a persons spinal column in moments of fright) is a wonderfully disgusting wormy crustacean. Scream for your life!

42. KING KONG

42. KING KONG
(1933)
Director Ernest B. Schoedsask & Merian C. Cooper

The mighty Kong toppling all bloodied from the Empire State Building breaks my heart every time. The great ape destroyed by tiny stupid humans. Damn, as if someone like me needs something else to feed his misanthropy. But hey, to state the obvious, one of the functions of horror is to cast a light on those less than admirable aspects of the human condition. It's why horror makes people uncomfortable. Let's talk of Kong. He was taken from his tropical isle to the concrete jungle of Manhattan in bondage and put on shameful display which is enough to make any colossal gorilla go on a fucking rampage. And who can blame the big lunk for turning into a lovestruck sap over Fay Wray (no relation to Link, by the way)? Seems like his Achilles' heel was having a heart bigger than his brain. Poor Kong. I'm sure that having a cock the size of a church bus didn't help, either. But it's these faults that endear Kong to the viewer and any sympathy evoked is due to Willis O'Brien whose pioneering stop-motion animation brought the monster to life. Yeah, some of you less cultured cretins out there might snicker at the effects over 70 years later but wipe the drool off your chin and get thee a history lesson. "King Kong" was a quantum leap in special effects and in a shocking exhibition of good public taste it became the big movie sensation of 1933. Strong arguments can and have been made that hail this the greatest monster movie of all time. "It was beauty that killed the beast". You said it, brother.

43. MARK OF THE VAMPIRE

43. MARK OF THE VAMPIRE
(1935)
Directed by Tod Browning

Here is another Bela Lugosi-as-vampire movie directed by Tod Browning. "Mark of the Vampire" is a remake of Browning's 1927 silent movie "London After Midnight" which starred Lon Chaney with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, creeping along in a tophat. Bela wisely chose to play the vampire in his patented Dracula mode instead of attempting to match or copy the Chaney performance. Here he is joined by his attractive protege Carol Borland who had known Bela since his days of performing "Dracula" on stage when she became understandably obsessed with the dashing Hungarian. She is stunning as she languishes through the night in her burial gown, ghostly pale with long black hair. She was not only an inspiration for Morticia Adams but also, whether they knew it or not, a legion of Goth girls who cultivated a serene post mortem allure that made the libidos of monster kids, male and female, spike off the charts many years later. Pale girls in black with dirty minds and death in their eyes have always caused me all manner of pleasant distractions and distresses. Carol Borland was an original. Beyond her presence, "Mark of the Vampire" is director Tod Browning's last good film and Wong Howe's photography is exquisite. Of course many of you reading this may already know that this is essentially a murder mystery but the horror elements are strong enough to make up for the cheater ending.

44. DRACULA

44. DRACULA
(1931)
Directed by Tod Browning

No character from horror fiction has been the subject of as many filmic interpretations as Dracula and no performance has defined the role of the Count in the popular imagination as much as Bela Lugosi's. He'd been playing Dracula in a stage version that began it's run in 1927 at the Fulton Theatre in New York but he wasn't the first choice for the part when Universal Studios began planning a silver screen version. They wanted Lon Chaney but Lon had taken his thousand faces into the afterlife by that point. Now the idea of Chaney in the role makes for some intriguing conjecture but Bela turned out to be a perfect fit. It's safe to say that Lugosi had a powerful connection with the role even though he would complain later on that his relentless identification as a bloodsucker ruined his chance to play serious romantic leads and such. But Bela was born to be in horror. Bela was Dracula. The undeniable high point of this movie arrives in the incredibly moody and stygian initial minutes when we see the crypt and the castle interior and the cobwebbed staircase and the brides. The eerie silence in these scenes delivers the shivers even now. Unfortunately the gothic majesty of the opening isn't sustained but Bela makes it all worthwhile, not to mention Dwight Frye's legendary unhinged performance of the fly eating basket case Renfield. No other Renfield comes close and his gets my vote for the greatest laugh in movie history. It should also be mentioned that "Dracula" made truckloads of money for Universal and inaugurated the parade of godhead Universal monster movies that continued through the decade. "I don't drink... wine."

45. CASTLE OF BLOOD

45. CASTLE OF BLOOD
(1964)
Directed by Antonio Margheriti

Here we have the third Barbara Steele movie on the list so far and believe me, I showed great restraint when picking movies graced with her presence. You could say I'm a bit of a fan. Horror often deals with the travails of duality and she expressed some powerful contradictions like no woman before or since- innocent and corrupt, cadaverous and voluptuous, lovely and monstrous. Barbara was a conduit for the repressed to spill through. "Castle of Blood" is another tale of the gothic. It's a tale of castle ghosts who became trapped in the twilight realm between the living and the way gone in a sex driven and bloody fashion. It's a tale of a foolish chap who wagers that he can spend a night in this haunted castle and ends up vexed by several visitations of the spectral variety. One of these haints is Barbara and she is especially fetching here as she drifts flirty and mad through the shadows in her nightgown. This gem is loaded with funereal beauty, murder and a even a bit of nudity. Oh, yes, the trousers may tighten... other Barbara Steele movies of high esteem to track down are "The Horrible Dr. Hichcock" (1962), it's follow-up "The Ghost" (1963), and "Nightmare Castle" (1963). These are all Italian films and they are all, without exception, dubbed poorly and sometimes the hammy voices that are used come off as fucking ridiculous but "Castle of Blood" is hampered little by this drawback. Margheriti, along with Riccardo Freda and especially Mario Bava, made Italy a hot spot for horror in the 1960's and this bloody torch would be famously passed on to creepy bowl-cut genius Dario Argento.

46. CURSE OF THE DEMON

46. CURSE OF THE DEMON
(1957)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur

I don't know about you but when I was a kid I was fascinated by that cue-ball headed demonologist Aleister Crowley. To my knowledge there's never been a movie made specifically about him but he's clearly the inspiration for Dr. Karswell, master of the occult in "Curse of the Demon". This is not the kind of man you want to mess with but that's just what a certain Dr. Holden (played by Dana Andrews) is compelled to do. Dana Andrews became a star in 1944 with the highly recommended crime thriller "Laura" (which also starred a young Vincent Price in the role of a sleazy playboy) but, perhaps due to his battles with the bottle, he never lived up to his potential. "Curse of the Demon" may be his finest moment and he does a great job playing the part of a man pursued by intangible supernatural forces. Director Jacques Tourneur proved himself a master of shadow and suspense in the 1940's and all of his directorial talents are on display here. Few horror films after this relied so heavily on (and succeeded so well with) summoning fright through the mere power of suggestion. As far as the storyline is concerned there is a piece of parchment adorned with runes that spells doom for whomever has it when the demon comes calling but, as the song penned years later pointed out, "Dana Andrews said prunes, gave him the runes, and passing them used lots of skills." Terrible chills, indeed.

47. NEAR DARK

47. NEAR DARK
(1987)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

There were some fucking awful vampire movies in the 1980's, what with goofy shit fests like "Fright Night" (1985) and "The Lost Boys" (1987), but that generally vapid decade did provide horror fans with one bona fide bloodsucking landmark. "Near Dark" is a true original that evades the usual trappings of capes and bats and stakes. It captures the panic of a traveling group of undead in a windblown American desert as they travel from one gruesome roadside repast to the next, always on the run, crashing in shitty motels instead of the traditional coffins, and always dreading sunrise. It's hard not to feel sorry for this bunch. There really isn't too much romanticism to be found in their transient existence and it's clear that their days are numbered. The leader of the pack is an old Confederate soldier played by Lance Henriksen (also in "Aliens") and it's most vicious member is the demented cowboy played by Bill Paxton who deep sixes victims with razor sharp spurs. Fucking scary. The one scene that has always stuck with me shows us the dirty bunch of road grizzled vampires descend on a honky tonk where they proceed to murder and drain everyone inside to the strains of "Fever" as covered by the Cramps.

48. A BUCKET OF BLOOD

48. A BUCKET OF BLOOD
(1959)
Directed by Roger Corman

Walter Paisley the bus boy pays the rent in his dirty dingy and really beat bachelor dive by scurrying from table to table in a smoky beatnik bar called the Yellow Door where poets and painters and unshaven reefer headed deadbeats pass their hours waxing pretentious about the noble path of the artist and this bugs Walter to no end because he's got a notion stashed in his lid that he can swing it like an artist himself by working clay into mad sculptures but the simple minded milquetoast just doesn't have the chops until he accidentally impales the landlady's cat on a kitchen knife and adds clay to cover up the goof then presto he has his first masterpiece that he calls "Dead Cat" and the reception his sculpture gets at the Yellow Door really busts his conk and one murder leads to another and with some clay over corpses he is hailed as a full blown gasser, ace and hip and groovy and crazy and all the rest, but the gambit can't last and soon the word is out that Walter has gone blowtop in pursuit of his art and his stay on the bohemian throne is a short one and he's forced to pull a Houdini when his murders are revealed and the scene gets too hot to stay cool. Crazy, man, crazy. The wildest. Fracture your wig with this black comedy for a finger popping good time. Beatnik horror, baby. It's way out.

49. THE HAUNTING

49. THE HAUNTING
(1963)
Directed by Robert Wise

Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" retains it's well deserved status as one of the greatest haunted house novels ever and it was given a fitting treatment in this film version. As a matter of well reasoned opinion, this flick stands as one of the best novel to screen adaptations ever, capturing the creeping unease and moody atmospherics that Jackson brought to life with her prose. She was one helluva writer who lived in New England, apparently had a huge collection of occult books and claimed to be a witch. Next time you're in the library and in need of good dark reading get your paws on some Shirley Jackson. And the next time you're in the video store you might want to give the movie version a shot. The only reason it isn't higher on my list is that for some reason Julie Harris's voiceover has a tendency to annoy me a bit. Too whiney (oh, that tastes like blasphemy on my tongue but fuck it). Much has been made of the less than subtle lesbian tension between her character and the character played by the alluring and slightly wicked Claire Bloom but not enough has been made of Russ Tamblyn who also graced the screen in 1950's juvenile delinquent movies (the greatest I've ever seen, "High School Confidential" (1958)), 1960's biker movies (especially "Satan's Sadists"(1969)) and on David Lynch's "Twin Peaks"(1990). He plays a good skeptical smart aleck in "The Haunting", a movie that just might be the best haunted house tale to ever shiver across the flickers.

50. ANGEL HEART

50. ANGEL HEART
(1987)
Directed by Alan Parker

This is what you'd call a good old fashioned New Orleans style voodoo sex horror identity crisis movie. The rich, provocative, dark and off kilter feel reminds me of a Tom Waits record- all moody blood grease booze and smoke rolling with a Satanic undertow. The story, based on a 1979 novel by William Hjortsberg, is a clever take on the old Raymond Chandler style of private detective narrative (and let it be known that the hardboiled school of crime writers enjoy a prominent place on my bookshelves and I consider it a shame that horror and noir haven't knocked boots more often). Mickey Rourke plays private dick Harry Angel who is hired by a mysterious long finger-nailed dapper cat named Louis Cyphre (Robert Deniro) to track down a missing crooner who called himself Johnny Favorite. It's set in the 1950's and the action shifts from snowy New York to steamy New Orleans with corpses piling up along the way in gruesome fashion. Mickey Rourke peaked in 1987. Not only did he nail the role of Harry Angel but he also transformed himself into Charles Bukowski for that ode to the self-medicated lifestyle, "Barfly". In the notoriety department "Angel Heart" stirred up some shinola for a blood drenched fucking scene to the strains of Lavern Baker's sultry torch song "Soul on Fire". Love that song. Love this movie.

51. SON OF FRANKENSTEIN

51. SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1939)
Directed by Rowland V. Lee

Now here's a sequel that is definitely worth mentioning. "Son of Frankenstein" was released to a fright hungry public after a two year ban on horror movies (yes, shocking but true) and stands as a fitting climax to the great 1930's Universal cycle of such films. It's many assets include the marvelous set designs (consistent in quality with the two James Whale directed Frankenstein movies that came before) of gloomy dead trees, rolling fog and shadowy interiors. Karloff plays the monster for the last time opposite Bela Lugosi as the maniacal hunchback Ygor who still bears the gruesome neck scar from an unsuccessful hanging. Ygor befriends the monster for less than admirable reasons but their manipulative relationship is heart rending in it's way. Two outcasts bonding on the far side of the grave against the world that wants nothing to do with them. If only all buddy films were like this... Basil Rathbone plays the son of Dr. Frankenstein employed by Ygor to get the monster back to lumbering about scaring the shit out of people and he's solid but the show stopper is Lionel Atwill as the mutilated inspector who had his arm ripped out by the monster when he was a child. During the climax, just for old time's sake, the monster tears his arm (now a fake) out of the socket again. Karloff would continue to make some interesting movies through the 1940's and beyond but poor Bela, as all monster kids know, wasn't so lucky

52. THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

52. THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
(1954)
Directed by Jack Arnold

Horror culture was alive and well in the 1950's. The advent of television hipped a new generation of disgruntled youngsters to the classic Universal monsters of the 1930's on boob tube horror shows hosted by the likes of Vampira, Zacherly and Ghoulardi. This inspired the first great magazine devoted to silver screen horrors, "Famous Monsters of Filmland" in 1958 and also dozens and dozens of monster related rock 'n roll tunes. But kids needed a new monster of their own and Universal managed to churn out another one with the internationally recognized "Creature From the Black Lagoon". Like the Universal monsters of old this creature could indeed end your life in a painful fashion but was essentially a sympathetic figure. Think about it. He'd been living in this peaceful lagoon minding his own business when in steams a ship of nosey scientists who discover his existence and try to capture him. On the ship is a beautiful woman and the creature, showing his romantic side, falls in love with her. Too far down the evolutionary scale to mount any sophisticated type of courting he does what lizard men will do and just carries her off. Folks have pointed out that this is really just the King Kong story with the gill man replacing the big ape but it's a tragic tale that bears repeating. Monsters are never lucky in love. Of course the creature suit, though innovative for it's time, is a wee bit dated these days, but I consider this the reigning king of the 50's creature features. The underwater scenes are top notch and must've been breathtaking on a Drive-In screen, especially in it's original 3-D. In true Hollywood fashion sequels were made but none are worth mentioning.

53. BLOOD AND ROSES

53. BLOOD AND ROSES
(1960)
Directed by Roger Vadim

It troubles me to have to preface this entry with a disclaimer but that's just what I'm going to do. I saw this movie only once and it was several blurry years ago but it left a lasting impression on me and there was no way I could leave it off this list. When talking about vampire movies (which seems to happen often) I always have to bring it up. Sure I was far from sober during this single viewing but I am trusting that my memory hasn't betrayed me. Everything I've read about "Blood and Roses" since then leads me to believe that it really was as good as I recall. One thing is for certain: in the crowded realm of the vampire movie this one clearly stands out as unique. There are many flavors to bloodsucking cinema but movies that make a serious attempt to be poetic are hard to find. It's the first re-telling of the LeFanu story "Carmilla" that actually resembles the tale (pre-dating the rash of lesbian vampire movies I just wrote about that exploded about a decade later) and is probably the best thing that director Roger Vadim ever had a part in. Annette Vadim, his wife at the time, plays Carmilla and she has her eyes set on the irresistible ashen throat of Georgia Monteverdi (played by Elsa Martinelli). Vadim, for the record, was once married to Brigette Bardot and would later direct the charmingly atrocious "Barbarella" (1968) along with some forgettable exercises in soft porn.

54. THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

54. THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES
(1971)
Directed by Robert Fuest

By the time this movie was released in 1971 Vincent Price had already been long inducted into the monster hall of fame, a veteran of genre classics like "House of Wax" (1953), "The Fly" (1958), "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), the Roger Corman Poe cycle, "Witchfinder General" (1968) and many others. So folks had grown accustomed to seeing him in all types of sinister and tormented roles but his portrayal of Dr. Phibes is hands down the most wonderfully demented. Dr. Phibes has survived near death to emerge horribly scarred but intact and instead of finding some corny new appreciation for life he does what I would do by devoting himself to villainy and sadistic vengeance! Unable to speak in the conventional manner he communicates through an electronic device lodged in his neck and, as eccentric bonuses, wears ill-advised costumes and plays a mean pipe organ. Like any good mad doctor he has an assistant but instead of an unsightly hunchback we have the lovely Vulnavia (made all the more fetching by her easy compliance with the evil plans of Phibes). This was Vincent's 100th feature and was followed by an equally ludicrous sequel in 1972, "Dr. Phibes Rises Again". Sadly enough these two movies represented the last of his great work in horror and the landscape was soon to change with a dramatic shift to slasher movies that had little room for thespians with his elegance and charm. The line of consummate horror icons like Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff ended with Vincent Price and no one has risen to their stature since. That, my friends, is a goddamn shame.

55. VAMPYRES

55. VAMPYRES
(1974)
Directed by Jose Roman Larraz

The time on our list has come to talk about lesbian vampire movies and the inspiration for most of these films is Sheridan LeFanu's archetypal 19th Century novella "Carmilla". Essential reading, in case you didn't know. The sexy undead predatory female who will turn you on, steal your women and suck you dry has massive appeal for reasons that are both too obvious and too involved to list here. Film scholars have published research on the matter so if you're curious then get thee to a library and read up. This interesting and lascivious sub-genre of horror movies had it's initial burst of popularity in the early 1970's due mostly to a successful trilogy of Hammer films, "The Vampire Lovers" (1970), "Lust for a Vampire" (1971) and "Twins of Evil" (1972). Jean Rollin was also making sexy bloodsucking movies in France and Jess Franco was doing the same in Spain (most famously with 1970's "Vampyros Lesbos") but I think the best, and sexiest, of them all was this latecomer, "Vampyres", orchestrated in some lost chilly October by an otherwise undistinguished director, Jose Ramon Larraz. The lovely living dead gals are played by Marianne Morris and model/centerfold Anulka. It's very erotic, very bloody and filmed on location at a stunning English manor. I'm getting hot under the collar just thinking about it. Better move on.

56. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

56. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
(1999)
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

I have found that this super-hyped phenomenon of an indie flick is one of those love 'em or hate 'em movies and it's my humble opinion that those who hate "The Blair Witch Project" have been so polluted by bad modern horror big budget shit-fests that they can't appreciate an imaginative and effective creeper like this when it comes along. As a full blown horror fan I have suffered through countless formula driven and cliche ridden attempts at fright, always longing for something unique and singular to come down the pike. The genre needed this movie in a big way. Plus, maybe because of my Slavic blood, I'm a sucker for scary witch folk tales and creepy woodsy settings when autumn has rolled over the landscape, dropping dead leaves and infesting everything with a new spine tingly chill. "The Blair Witch Project" sure has that feel. Yeah, the hype was a bit much after awhile but it was a welcome deviation from the norm to have a zero budget horror flick generate a buzz that packed theatres nationwide. The only other independently produced horror movie that came close to causing such a stir was "Halloween" in the Fall of 1978. "Blair Witch" was a singular phenomenon for sure and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. No computer generated horseshit, just the power of suggestion, the strength of shadows and no survivors.

57. SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN)

57. SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN)
(1976)
Directed by David Cronenberg

Cronenberg has had a long career of creating challenging and troubling films ("The Brood" (1979), "Scanners" (1981), "Dead Ringers" (1988), "Naked Lunch" (1991), etc.) and he continues to be one of the most interesting filmmakers around but my personal favorite dates back to the beginning of his body of work. "Shivers" was shot in his native Canada and involves a sexually transmitted disease which is spread by truly disgusting slimy black slugs that crawl into their host and proceed to turn their libido on full blast, promoting frenzied couplings and thus facilitating further infections which eventually leads to a state of frothing anarchy. All of this happens in an idealized shiny clean high rise community with all the comforts and conveniences one could hope for. This particular brand of intelligent cinematic repulsion that Cronenberg became a master of has been called biological horror and, as labels go, it works. The monster lurks inside and the body is primed for revolt. That's why I've always preferred "They Came From Within" as a title. The double barrel fears of having your body invaded by parasites, especially the visually loathsome variety in this film, and then spiraling into madness can still blast holes in an unsuspecting viewer. This would work rather well on a double billing with the much talked about "28 Days Later" (2003).

58. TWO THOUSAND MANIACS

58. TWO THOUSAND MANIACS
(1964)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Legendary B-movie director Herschell Gordon Lewis (aka "The Godfather of Gore") has said that this tale of Confederate retribution is the favorite of all of his cinematic crimes. I'm quite fond of it as well. Now, old H.G. never had much of a budget on any of his ventures but, in a series of around 8 movies made between 1963 and 1973, he sure did have a lot of fake blood and butcher shop animal parts. It all started with "Blood Feast" (1963) and reached dizzying heights of bad taste with "The Wizard of Gore" (1970) and "The Gore-Gore Girls" (1972). But number 58 on our list is our immediate concern and it's one hundred proof poorly acted redneck horror! Warning, if you haven't seen "Two Thousand Maniacs", I'm fixing to lay down a big spoiler. What you get in this movie is a little town called Pleasant Valley with it's own scary little bluegrass trio called the Pleasant Valley Boys, and they are celebrating a centennial whose festivities include murdering unsuspecting Yankees by axe chopping, some old fashioned drawn and quartered torso twisting, a bloody barrel roll and a bone crushing falling rock (in that order). "Such a strange little affair, it's almost like Halloween..."

59. CARRIE

59. CARRIE
(1976)
Directed by Brian DePalma

Let's talk about the horror of high school. Anyone who was ugly, awkward, introverted, strange or shunned during those years most likely harbors little nostalgia for the experience. Surviving that gauntlet of assholes can certainly become a strong bonding point later in life when you find other social pariahs who had to weather the same tedious path, but it's no fun while it's happening. This is one of the reasons horror and adolescence make such complimentary partners. High school horror movies started with that cresting wave of juvenile delinquent films to infect movie screens across the country in the 1950's and the best of these tapped into the awkward trauma of those years with real panache. But it would take 20 years and the pen of a monster kid weaned on those lurid B-movies and gory EC Comics to create the paragon in teenage vengeance, "Carrie". The pen of course belonged to Stephen King and this was his first published novel. Directed by Brian DePalma and sporting a supporting cast that includes P.J. Soles, John Travolta and Nancy Allen, this was a big box office hit in ye olde Bicentennial year. A recent and rather clever addition to the high school horror canon is "Donnie Darko" (2001) but it really can't compare to Sissy Spacek having a telekinetic freak out covered in pig's blood.

60. DEAD ALIVE

60. DEAD ALIVE
(1992)
Directed by Peter Jackson

Evil claymation monkeys, horny zombies doing the horizontal mambo, a massive Oedipal monstrosity busting through the roof, zombies being mowed down by a hoisted lawnmower resulting in copious sprays of viscera, and yes, a heartwarming romantic subplot- this sick puppy is a deliriously over the top landmark in horrors messiest manifestation, the splatter film. It's a juvenile gross-out that may be best enjoyed by the younger set with a hankering for something ridiculous and disgusting but I must admit that films like these have a way of putting me back in touch with my inner teenager. It makes me want to buy a stack of comic books, sniff glue and spray paint the red brick walls of a convent. While it may not drive you to delinquency it surely won't trouble you with any deep thoughts. It's just comic book gore and lots of it. Peter Jackson was also responsible for the super stoopid gross out "Meet the Feebles" but don't waste your time with that Muppet inspired misfire. "Dead Alive" is the one to see.

61. THE THRILL KILLERS

61. THE THRILL KILLERS
(1964)
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler

I was lucky enough to see this cinematic triumph, also known as "The Maniacs are Loose", on the big screen and ever since then it has retained a special enclave in my little black heart. It abounds with anti-social coolness. It's a story about three escaped homicidal lunatics (The Headchoppers Three!) who team up with a serial killer named Mad Dog Click played by the director himself (under the name Cash Flagg) and then proceed to terrorize some very unlucky folks in the Topanga Canyon. Steckler was the inventive mastermind behind a handful of underground classics in the 60's including "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" (1966), "Wild Guitar"(1962) and "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" (1963) (the world's first monster musical!). "The Thrill Killers" is his best. Notable appearances include sexpot Liz Renay (fresh out of prison where she served hard time rather than rat out her gangster boyfriend) and Ron Haydock (editor of "Fantastic Monsters" magazine and rockabilly singer whose music can be enjoyed on a swank collection called "99 Chicks" brought to us by Norton Records). The original ads promise "Heads chopped off before your eyes" in "Hallucinogenic Hypno-Vision" and you will not be let down! Unlike anything you have ever seen before! Kill crazy psychopaths! Motel murders! Roadside diner horrors! See it or die a thousand deaths!