Horror Films

It's the time of the year for spooky things, films included. So I was thinking about horror films and which I most remember either as scary types, funny, or just simple and entertaining. Not being a big fan of movies most of my favorite are the old horror films...for two reasons. First, I have seen more of those than of the modern horror genre and , secondly, I think the absence or infrequency of special effects in them makes then better. Too much of film today is centered on special effects and violence, at the expense of the story and making the watcher use his or her imagination.

Are not the scariest of films the ones where we were not SHOWN the horror, but in which the imagination is left to conjure what we think the horror would be. Exploding heads, gushing blood and the rest of the typical special effect gore today is not nearly as menacing as the old film in which the monster creeps behind the victim, reaches for the intended's throat and......we see no more as the camera cuts to another scene. This proves that the imagination is far more horrifying than the train wreck our real mind sees.

Here are some of my favorite, an "unlucky 13" horror film list to watch at Halloween time, not necessarily ranked from most enjoyable to least because I like them all, and because there are many more that I didn't list. You'll notice most are old films, many in black and white.

1) The Mummy (1936) and The Mummy (1999)- Too very different films about The Mummy but the first version is scary and the second less scary but tongue in cheek great fun.
2) Frankenstein (1931)- maybe the best film of them all. All our ideas about Frankenstein came not from the novel by mary Shelly that gave life to him but rather from this classic Boris Karloff film that is still is relevant
3) The Birds (1963) - The Alfred Hitchcock long lasting horror movie about birds gone wild that leaves us thinking, "This could really happen".
4) Arachnophobia (1990)- Spiders. John Goodman with a blowtorch. What's scarier than the common spider doing uncommonly crazy things?
5) Dawn of the Dead (2004)- In that one the world is over-run with the undead, a group of survivors find refuge in a shopping mall. Wait! I think the mall is like that anyway, during the Christmas shopping rush. The escape to a mall is amusingly ironic.
6) The Fly (1958 and 1986 versions)- a psychological thriller that leaves one "buzzing" with questions about the role of science in life.
7) 28 days later (2002)- it's set in am almost deserted England torn apart wide by biological warfare. I hope the terrorists assembling their biological warfare chemicals were scared straight.
8) The Thing (1951 and 1982)- I prefer the original 1951 version about a crew stationed at an Antarctic base is stalked by a shape shifting alien. This one has you gasping and leaves you wondering.
9) Bride of Frankenstein (1935 ) -This is a comedy as much as it is a horror film and proof that a sequel can be better than the original..
10) The Wolfman (1941)- This is as much a tragic story as a horror film. it forever changed how we think of wolves turning them into monsters.
11) House on the Haunted Hill (1959)- One of the greatest of all horror film actors, Vincent Price, plays a campy host of a house haunted and on display to very nervous "visitors".1
2) Hocus Pokus- a not scary but funny n horror film staring Bette Midler as a singing witch transported to modern day Halloween night.
13) Pit and The Pendulum ( 1960)- I love the descriptiveness and imagination of Poe's writing. This is classic creepy Poe fun.

What are some favorites of yours I did not mention?