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Any recommendations on Classic Horror Movies?


Phillyman

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  • Retromags Curator

I was on Amazon and saw that this compilation of 8 classic horror movies is being released in a few days. I have not seen any of these movies, but will be starting to watch them in the next few weeks (just in time for Halloween). Does anyone have any other recommendations that I should consider?

Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection

http://www.amazon.co...uct/B008FL8OTK/

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Depends on what you consider "classic," but I have a few recommendations.

1 - The Blob. You can go for either the 1958 original with Steve McQueen, or the 30th Anniversary remake with Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon. Both have their good points (the original black & white one is creepier, with more of a Twilight Zone feel to it, while the remake from the 1980s shows a lot more viciousness in its attacks and breaks a couple of horror film taboos, making it a bit more shocking), but they're both good fun.

2 - John Carpenter's The Thing. My favorite horror film of all time. It had the misfortune of being released just after E.T. in 1982, when the world was more in love with the idea of harmless aliens from another world as opposed to ones that wanted to kick our asses. Carpenter's version is a remake of 1951's "The Thing From Another World", but it sticks much closer to John Campbell's original short story (and consequently is a lot more violent). The quintessential cinematic study in isolation and paranoia, with special effects that (with a couple exceptions) still hold up today.

3 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This movie's been remade/reinterpreted so many times it's not funny. The original 1952 version is very well done, but my favorite version is the 1978 one, with Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright. Sits right up there with The Thing as a great cinematic study in paranoia. See also: The Puppetmasters, The Faculty, Body Snatchers, The Invasion, etc...

4 - Godzilla. No, not the cheesy 90s version with Matthew Broderick. Not even the 1956 version with Raymond Burr. I'm talking about the original all-Japanese 1954 version, which is a straight-up HORROR film. No rooting for the monster in this one. What makes this movie so shocking to watch today is the realization that many of the special effects involving city-wide devastation and the aftermath of the monster's attack ARE NOT SPECIAL EFFECTS. The director used actual newsreel footage from the aftermaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to showcase Godzilla's rampage. The burnt buildings, bodies hauled away on stretchers, grown men rocking back and forth in shock in hospitals and kids crying from radiation burns all happened for real back in 1945.

5 - Prince of Darkness. The second part of John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy (the others being "The Thing" and "In The Mouth of Madness"). While the plot seems hokey (a group of grad students set up shop in an old church to study a protoplasmic life form that may be the spawn of Satan), the special effects are well-executed, and once the shit hits the fan, you're glued to your seat. Look for a cameo by Alice Cooper as one of the bums who surround the church and night, cutting off any chance for the kids to escape.

*huggles*

Areala

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Surprisingly enough, I have seen the 1954 Godzilla film! However I did not know about the footage being real. Right now I am diving into movies pretty hard. I am trying to amass the following....

  • Each years "Best Picture" from 1960 to the present
  • Each years "Top Grossing Movie" from 1960 to the present
  • Every movie that is based off of a video game
  • Every Zombie/Vampire movie
  • The big name action films from the 80's and 90's
  • Any cult films
  • Any classic horror films
  • All the Godzilla and Gamera films
  • All the major Disney animations

But with all that, I am looking for Bluray's.....so if it's only on DVD at the moment....I am skipping over it.

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You do realize that by the end of your collecting extravaganza you're going to wind up owning well over ten thousand films, right?

Also, with zombie films, I will not consider you a true connoisseur of the genre until you have watched 'The Dead Hate the Living.'

And please, I know you want every video game to film adaptation out there, but for the love of Mothra, skip the second Mortal Kombat film. :)

*huggles*

Areala

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You do realize that by the end of your collecting extravaganza you're going to wind up owning well over ten thousand films, right?

Also, with zombie films, I will not consider you a true connoisseur of the genre until you have watched 'The Dead Hate the Living.'

And please, I know you want every video game to film adaptation out there, but for the love of Mothra, skip the second Mortal Kombat film. :)

*huggles*

Areala

I forgot, I also want to own the popular Kung Fu movies :)

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A few more suggestions, if you want them:

6 - Dying Room Only. I don't think you can find it on Blu-Ray, but this 1973 made-for-TV horror film written by Richard Matheson is required viewing for anybody who wants to understand just how truly screwed one can get out in the middle of nowhere even if there are no chainsaw-wielding maniacs or inbred hillbillies in sight. Coming home after a vacation, married couple Bob and Jean stop off at one of those highway diners that sits between more civilized areas. While Bob gets them a table, Jean hits the bathroom to freshen up. Only when she exits the bathroom, Bob's nowhere to be found, the locals in the diner claim they have no idea where he went, the car's missing, there's no sign of foul play so the sheriff can't do anything, and now Jean's stuck trying to figure out what happened all by herself. This is one seriously, seriously good film.

7 - The Night Stalker. Before there was Supernatural, before there was The X-Files, there was Kolchak. Carl Kolchak, that is, an investigative reporter with a nose for crime and stories so good that it's gotten him fired more times than he cares to count. Now writing for the only paper in the country who will employ him, a little two-bit rag out in Las Vegas, he stumbles onto a set of murders where the victims, mostly prostitutes, have been completely drained of blood. Stranger still, there's never any evidence of how this happened (one body is found in the middle of a desert construction site, with absolutely no footprints anywhere near her in the sand). The police are certain they're dealing with a serial killer, but Kolchak thinks the evidence points towards a more supernatural foe. Is a vampire stalking Sin City? Another Richard Matheson-penned TV movie, this time from 1972, but it spawned not only a sequel (The Night Strangler) but an entire TV series (Kolchak: The Night Stalker) which inspired every paranormal/supernatural thriller in its wake.

8 - Lucio Fulci's Zombie. While the dubbing is awful and most of the special effects look like they were done in somebody's basement (because they were), Zombie is still brutally effective. While the reanimated corpses of Romero's films look relatively fresh with only the occasional massive trauma wound to indicate they shouldn't be walking about, Fulci's zombies look like corpses that have been buried in the worm-infested ground for decades. There's a lot of prosthetics, model-work and make-up used, but the end result is probably more akin to what a true zombie uprising would look like. Between the great makeup, the underwater zombie vs. shark fight, the cringe-worthy splinter-through-the-eye visual effect, and a relentlessly downtrodden and hope-murdering soundtrack, this is about as good as it gets from the "me too" Italian splatter horror scene of the 1980s.

*huggles*

Areala

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