Greetings fright fans! Dr. Gangrene, Nashville horror host here, with a list of movie recommendations for the Halloween season. Netflix has a number of classic terror tales available for streaming, so I thought I’d put together a list of my favorites for you ghouls to curl up with on these cool October evenings.
Here, in no particular order, are ten films guaranteed to make your goosebumps get goosebumps!
Black Sabbath – 1963 – Italian director Mario Bava. Anthology film that stars the inimitable Boris Karloff in a dual role – as a disembodied host introducing three terror tales, and as the lead in the final, and best, of the three stories –
Rosemary’s Baby – 1968 – Director Roman Polanski. Stars Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. A young couple moves to a new apartment in an old high rise in New York city, and become entangled in a web of evil concocted by Satan himself. Nominated for 2 Oscars, won one.
Madhouse – 1974 – Director Jim Clark – Stars the merchant of menace himself, Vincent Price, as an aging horror movie star Paul Toomes, aka Dr Death, who has returned from a mental breakdown to make another movie – but people are beginning to die. Is Dr. Death to blame? Also stars Peter Cushing and Robert Quarry.
Black Sunday – 1960 – another Mario Bava classic, this one stars the amazing Barbara Steele as a witch who is burned at the stake and returns for revenge!
Dracula – 1931 – Directed masterfully by Tod Browning, this is the vampire performance that all others copied. Stars the immortal Bela Lugosi, adapted from the Bram Stoker novel. This one put Universal on the map as a horror studio.
The Wolf Man – 1942 – Director George Waggner – Another Universal classic, starring Lon Chaney Jr. as a man cursed to become a beast by the light of the full moon.
House on Haunted Hill – 1959 – Director William Castle – another Vincent Price film, (my favorite actor), this one is the quintessential old dark house story. A group of strangers are invited to stay the night in a haunted house and will be paid handsomely in the morning – IF they survive!
Re-animator – 1985 – Stuart Gordon – Based on the H.P. Lovecraft novel of the same name, this stars Jeffrey Combs as mad scientist Herbert West who is searching for the key to creating life. One of the most insane Frankenstein stories you’ll ever see – and one of the best!
Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2 – 1981/1987 – Director Sam Raimi – I lumped both together here because #2 is a bigger budget remake of the first, both by director Raimi. Stars Bruce Campbell as Ash, who goes to a cabin in the woods with his friends and resurrects an ancient evil with the power of the Necronomicon, an book of uncountable evil (another H.P. Lovecraft construct).
Pumpkinhead – 1988 – Director Stan Winston – Stars Lance Henriksen as a country farmer who makes a deal with a witch to awaken an evil force to enact revenge upon the people who killed his son.
Those are my ten picks, fright fans. Hope you enjoy them, and if you have bad dreams afterwards, well – you were warned!!
(Make sure to check out episodes of Chiller Cinema over at www.drgangrene.com. We here at 4LN are HUGE fans of the show and are eternally grateful to the ghoulish Doctor for concocting a delightfuly frightening list of great horror classics!)