1. M (1931). A psychotic child murderer stalks a city, and despite an exhaustive investigation fueled by public hysteria and outcry, the police have been unable to find him. But the police crackdown does have one side-affect, it makes it nearly impossible for the organized criminal underground to operate. So they decide that the only way to get the police off their backs is to catch the murderer themselves. Besides, he is giving them a bad name. As far as I'm concerned this film is the most disturbing horror film of all time. This German film by Fritz Lang confronts pedophilia and child murder with the most chilling cinematography. One simple scene brought me to tears the first time I saw it. Once you see it, you'll know which scene I mean. The film explores revenge and self-righteousness and mental illness and other complicated things about being human. Peter Lorre, the Christopher Walken of his age, plays the killer in probably his best performance ever. We probably wouldn't have Horror films without Germany. Figures.
2. Psycho (1960). Marion Crane works at a Real Estate Office in Arizona. She has a sister named Lila and a boyfriend named Sam. She wants to marry Sam, but the two do not have enough money, since Sam is still paying off his ex-wife's alimony, and she has a small job at Lowery's office. One Friday, December the eleventh, Mr. Cassidy, a rich oil tycoon, comes to the office to give Lowery $40,000 to buy a house for his daughter's wedding present. Lowery asks Marion to deposit the cash and she said she would. Instead, she packs up and heads for Fairvale to see Sam, with the money in her purse. She ends up at the Bates Motel where she meets Norman Bates, a troubled young man who seems to be obsessed with his Mother. After Norman feeds Marion dinner, she goes back to her room for a shower.... Norman Bates is one screwed up guy. Anthony Perkins nails the role as a matricidal momma's boy. He plays it subtly and chillingly. Of course, the shower scene that has left an indelible mark on our culture puts it at or near the top of anyone's list.
3. The Innocents (1961). In late 19th century England, an inexperienced young woman becomes governess to a small orphan girl living in a lonely stately home occupied only by the child, a housekeeper and a small complement of servants. Her initial misgivings allayed by the child's angelic nature, her anxieties are once more aroused when the girl's brother, equally captivating, is sent home from boarding school for wickedness of some unspecified kind. Then eerie apparitions and inexplicable behaviour on the children's part cause her to wonder about the house's history, especially about the fate of the previous governess and the former valet, Peter Quint, and to fear for the children's souls and for her own sanity. Eventually convinced that there is an unnatural force at work, perverting the innocence of her charges, she sets out to secure the children's salvation by wresting them from its power. Though her struggle reaches a resolution, its real nature and its outcome ultimately remain ambiguous. This is one of those films that appears to be one thing, and is actually another. What appears to be a haunted house story is actually an exploration of the innocence of childhood, Victorian sexuality, and the adult and child's different perspectives on fantasy and imagination. The story is actually and adaptation of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw."
4. King Kong (1933). Master showman Carl Denham has fallen on hard times due to the depression, and mounts an expedition to the mysterious Skull Island to find another showpiece. He takes along adventurer Jack Driscoll and the down-on-her-luck gorgeous blonde Ann Darrow with him to spice up the show. Arriving on the island, they discover it is home to gigantic beasts like dinosaurs, and ruling over all is Kong, a 30 foot tall gorilla. The natives kidnap Ann as a sacrifice for Kong, and the other crew members head into the dangerous island interior to rescue her. Where would special effects be today without the mastery of stop-action animation? King Kong is part Horror, part Drama, part Sci-Fi, and part Love Story. I will have to part ways with the final statement in the movie: No. It was not Beauty who killed the Beast. It was the sorry opportunist who drug the monkey out of his environment to the states to make some cash. Way to blame the chick, though.
5. Village of the Damned (1960). In the small English village of Midwich everybody and everything falls into a deep, mysterious sleep for several hours in the middle of the day. Some months later every woman capable of child-bearing is pregnant and the children that are born out of these pregnancies seem to grow very fast and they all have the same blond hair and strange, penetrating eyes that make people do things they don't want to do. This is a film that explores fascism and conformity and nuclear annhilation all in one felled swoop. A must-see. The children are chilling.
6. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). The world of freight handlers Wilbur Grey and Chick Young is turned upside down when the remains of Frankenstein's monster and Dracula arrive from Europe to be used in a house of horrors. Dracula awakens and escapes with the weakened monster, who he plans to re-energize with a new brain. Larry Talbot (the Wolfman) arrives from London in an attempt to thwart Dracula. Dracula's reluctant aide is the beautiful Dr. Sandra Mornay. Her reluctance is dispatched by Dracula's bite. Dracula and Sandra abduct Wilbur for his brain and recharge the monster in preparation for the operation. Chick and Talbot attempt to find and free Wilbur, but when the full moon rises all hell breaks loose with the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein all running rampant. This movie is a classic because it's horror and comedy are so close it's painful. There are scenes that are so funny that I cry from laughter. But, if you don't appreciate Abbot and Costello like I do, than you will be at a loss.
7. The House on Haunted Hill (1959). Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a "haunted House" party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors. Skeletons, heads in hatboxes, acid baths....how can you go wrong? Incidentally, the remake sucked big time. They should make it a law that NO Vincent Price movies may be remade. What hubris to think you could play ANY of the man's roles or give a proper tribute!
8. The Wolf Man (1941). Upon the death of his brother, Larry Talbot returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. He visits a gypsy camp with village girl Jenny Williams, who is attacked by Bela, a gypsy who has turned into a werewolf. Larry kills the werewolf but is bitten during the fight. Bela's mother tells him that this will cause him to become a werewolf at each full moon. Larry confesses his plight to his unbelieving father, Sir John, who then joins the villagers in a hunt for the wolf. Larry, transformed by the full moon, heads for the forest and a fateful meeting with both Sir John and Gwen. I've always sympathized with werewolves. They tend to be hapless victims and have no control over their fates. During the Wolf phase, they almost always struggle to retain some of their humanity. The Wolf Man's struggle is OUR struggle. Our humanity is often at odds with our baser instincts. Lon Chaney Jr. (The Man of A Thousand Faces) plays the role with compassion.
9. Them (1954). After several people in the New Mexico desert wind up missing or dead, including an F.B.I. agent and most of his family, police Sgt. Ben Peterson teams up with F.B.I. agent Bob Graham to find out what's causing the strange occurances. They find send a strange print found at one of the crime scenes tothe Department of Agriculture. Doctor Harold Medford and his daughter Doctor Patricia Medford arrive and ask to be taken to the scene of some of the disappearances. When they get there they are shocked to find gigantic ants, whose mutations were caused by the first atomic bomb explosion nine years earlier. They manage to destroy the nest of ants, but not before two winged queen ants and a couple of drones have hatched and escaped the nest. Now it is a race against time to find the two queen ants before they can establish more nests and hatch more queens. The 1950s's penchant for giant creature features can be connected to fear of the recently detonated nuclear bomb and the red scare. To me, this is the most representative and classic of the genre. Nuclear testing breeds monsters. Duh. The opening ten minutes are spectacular. Of course, since it's the 50s, the special effects are pretty sad.
10. Frankenstein (1931). Dr. Frankenstein creates a simple creature from various body parts. The creature turns into a monster when Dr. Frankenstein rejects him. Sticking close to the original novel, we are guided through the story of Frankenstein's quest for knowledge, and his creature's search for his 'father'. This blatantly cautionary tale about unethical and unchecked science is beautifully and poetically filmed. It is the story of megalomania, accountability, and the fearfulness of brute force without a soul. The scene that was only added back in in the 1990s because it was too controversial for 1930s audiences, involving the little girl is absolutely indelibly embedded into the culture's archetypal memories.
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