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Favorite classic horror movies

BeBopBaby

One Too Many
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The Rust Belt
With Halloween around the corner, it's time to start watching the scarey movies again. What are your favorite 5 classic horror movies?

In no particular order, mine are:

1. The Innocents (1962 spooky ghost story with Deborah Kerr)
2. The Black Cat (1934 w/Bela & Boris in a bauhaus mansion that makes me drool)
3. Phantom of the Opera (1925 silent Lon Chaney version)
4. Cat People (1942 Val Lewton version)
5. Freaks (1932 and just about any other movie directed by Tod Browning)

Honorable mention - Night of the Hunter & Cape Fear - Don't know if they are horror movies per se, but Robert Mitchum was scarey in both of them!
 

Edward

Bartender
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25,081
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London, UK
I'm something of a horror fan myself, though probably most of those I would own / have seen / be overly familiar with would fall into a much more recent time period than vintage. That said, I very much enjoyed The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932), a clear influence on my beloved Rocky Horror.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023293/

I've long been planning to check out Todd Browning's works since first hearing of him via the Ramones. Browning's The Freaks was the inspiration behind their Gabba Gabba Hey chant in the song Pinhead, a corruption of the "Gaa Gaa One of Us" dialogue in the film.

I also enjoy the original Wolfman. It was actually, if memory serves correctly, the protagonist in this whose hat inspired me to shape my grey Federation MK III with a diamond bash.
 

BeBopBaby

One Too Many
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1,176
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The Rust Belt
Edward - If you'd like to check out more Tod Browning movies, I'd recommend watching The Unknown, Mark of the Vampire or The Devil Doll. My favorite from the bunch has to be The Unknown starring a very young Joan Crawford and Lon Chaney.

I'd also recommend watching some of Val Lewton's movies. Like Browning, his movies are very brooding and heavy in atmosphere. Lewton's movies are classic examples in which not showing monsters and leaving them up to the viewer's imagination is much scarier than actually showing them. Cat People and I walked With a Zombie are two good movies by Lewton.
 

BeBopBaby

One Too Many
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1,176
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The Rust Belt
Another favorite:

dr_cyclops_poster_01.jpg
 

BeBopBaby

One Too Many
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1,176
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The Rust Belt
I forgot about The Uninvited, what a great movie. I like a classic psychological ghost story.

Another early colorized horror movie that I like to watch is The Mystery of The Wax Museum with Fay Wray.
 

Feraud

Bartender
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17,190
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Hardlucksville, NY
This thread reminds me of a documentary that ran on TCM.
Called Val Lewton- The Man in the Shadows.
Lewton produced low budget, atmospheric thrillers. The Seventh Victim and Leopard Man come to mind. Great viewing if you like the genre.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
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5,252
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
I agree that The Innocents is great, and Robert Wise's original version of The Haunting is another personal fave - the less said about the awful remake, the better.

I love all the old Universal horror films, even the lesser known ones like The Raven, The Invisible Ray, Man Made Monster, and Werewolf of London (which I actually prefer to The Wolf Man). And Bride of Frankenstein has the distinction of being the only film I have on DVD, VHS, and 16mm!

(But sorry, I don't believe in making numbered lists. I seem to love hundreds of everything!)
 

Baron Kern

New in Town
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28
Location
West Hartford CT
Oh anything from Hammer Horror! Anything with the oh so wonderful Peter Cushing!

The horrors of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Dracula has Risen from the Grave


Peter Cushing as the good guy and Christopher Lee as the Villian make such a great combo!

<3

I get a channel on my cable television called Monsters HD and they play 24/7 no commercials all Monster/Horror films. Most are old and cheesy but that is why I love it!

Also, anything with Vincent Price is great stuff too :)
 

Burnsie

Registered User
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267
Location
Virginia
Nosferatu is fantastic, the Barrymore Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is downright terrifying in parts, Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera may be my all time favorite, and I have a special weakness for all Universal monster movies from Dracula all the way up to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - they're all wonderful in very very different ways!
 

Hondo

One Too Many
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1,655
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Northern California
Vincent Price

HUGE Vincent Price fan, all those Edger Allen Poe films, and others like The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again! "House of Wax" and many more, very under appreciated actor, in either comedy or drama, loved his voice, was also an outstanding gourmet chef, as well as artist (paintings) there is a museum in downtown in L.A. that shows his works, he was a beautiful and talented gentleman.
 

Feraud

Bartender
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17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
On Oct 30/31 TCM are showing a lot of great classic horror films.
A few of the movies showing will be -
Mad Love, The Gorgon, The Tingler, Cat People, The Devil Bat, The Body Snatcher, Bedlam, etc. etc.
My dvr is going to be busy.
 

DanielJones

I'll Lock Up
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4,042
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On the move again...
Regarding Vincent Price,

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964) (We watched this one back in high school literature class after reading the book)
The Comedy of Terrors (1964) (He sure was busy this year. Altough this and the Raven were more comedy, they had all of the great horror elements in them)
The Raven (1963)

Although very campy at times, these had some great horror elements to them that doesn't seem to be in modern horror flics.

Of course the old Frankenstein series of films with Borris Karloff were fabulous!

Cheers!

Dan
 

Panache

A-List Customer
Messages
344
Location
California Bay Area
Favorites

Night of the Demon (Jacques Tournier)
The Univited
The Haunting (Robert Wise)
The Thing from Another World
The Mummy (original)
The Wolfman (original)
THEM!
Creature from the Black Lagoon


Guilty Pleasures

The Trollenberg Terror (aka The Crawling Eye)
Horror Express (Both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as Good Guys!)
13 Ghosts (original)
House on Haunted Hill (original)

Cheers and Happy Halloween

Jamie
 

BegintheBeguine

My Mail is Forwarded Here
I'm in full agreement so far!

Back-to-school time means one thing: my annual viewing of Monster on the Campus.
More votes here for The Uninvited, The Haunting, Night of the Demon (either US or UK version), Ghost Story, The Changeling. You all must also see The Other (not The Others, that wasn't scary).
I watched The Black Cat a few time last month on DVD; I didn't see John Carradine as I did on the VHS version, which the library didn't have anymore. It seems several seconds had been cut out of the DVD version. [huh]
Zombies of Mora Tau is one of many zombie movies I like.
Dracula is a favorite vampire movie: I love the armadillo.
 

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