I love monster movies.
October therefore is my favorite month-- it's the one time of year the rest of you come on board and the channels are devoted to my favorite holiday.
But it struck me that the VAST majority of these horror movies are just BAD.
Maybe it's impossible to make me happy, but here listed by genre/character are my picks for the absolute TOPS in horror film history.
DRACULA/VAMPIRE
1979- Salem's Lot-- this is hands down the best vampire film/story ever produced. Mr. Barlowe is the ultimate vampire and the spread of vampirism as a near plague just makes sense.
1965- Dracula Prince of Darkness - Christopher Lee's second go round as Dracula makes him almost ferrel in nature.
Runner Up- 1931 Spanish Language version of DRACULA. The lead is no Bela Lugosi-- who made the role his in the American version, but the lighting and the atmosphere is far superior to his version, filmed at the same time as the spanish one.
WEREWOLF
1935- The Werewolf of London - The werewolf is strongly lacking in terms of good stories and acting. There have been hundreds of werewolf films and almost all of them bad or acted on the level of a high school play.
1980- The Howling- It's got its weak parts but overall it's pretty solid, and it's much better than AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON which seems to get a lot of praise for no good reason.
Runner Up- 1941 The Wolf Man -- It's a B-movie with an A Cast but it's so goofy in parts it's hard to take seriously.
MUMMY
1959 - The Mummy (Hammer Films) Not only the best Mummy movie of all time, but the best Hammer film of all time. Christopher Lee as the Mummy is downright scary.
1932- The Mummy (Karloff) not scary but creepy in parts. This is an intellectual's monster movie.
Runner Up- Brendan Frasier's MUMMY films from the 00s-- good exciting Indiana Jones type adventures with a pretty cool villain to boot.
GIANT MONSTERS
1956- Godzilla King of The Monsters - The American dub to GOJIRA (1954) which is a brilliant film-- the dub ain't bad at all and it's actually about the terrors of nuclear war.
1933- King Kong - THE monster movie that started it all. Still great today.
Runner Up - GAMERA GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE (1995) filmed in a way that makes the giant monsters seem real. This is a good one.
GHOSTS
1998-The Haunting - I like this cheesy version.
1944- The Uninvited- Still spooky today.
1999- House on Haunted Hill - goofy but a great cast.
