I put up a similar post last year, but I wanted to go back to it in the spirit of the season. You see, my film literacy is brutally bad where horror is concerned, and every October I feel especially ashamed of this.
How bad is it? Consider that I haven’t seen any of the following…
Any Friday the 13th chapter.
Any Nightmare on Elm Street besides 1 and 3.
Any Saw chapter
The original WOLFMAN, MUMMY, and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
and the only time I’ve seen AMITYVILLE HORROR was the edited version on AMC
If you’re new to these parts, you might be asking yourself why I’m so illiterate where horror is concerned. The main reason is that when I grew up, I was a giant ‘fraidy cat, and as such I was late in developing a taste for anything gory.
When I mentioned this over the last two years, my faithful readers were good enough to suggest the long list you see below. While i was able to get to a few of them in over the last two autumns (CAT PEOPLE, ROSEMARY’S BABY, both EVIL DEADS, THE FLY, HALLOWEEN, THE DESCENT, and [REC] amongst others) there is a vast number of scary movies left untouched. So dear readers – once again I put this to you.
I want to try to strike five or six films off this list by Halloween – Which of the films are musts? Or if you had to nominate some of your very favorite scary movies, what makes the cut?
BLACK SABBATH
THE BLOB
CANDYMAN
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
CAT’S EYE
THE CHANGELING
THE DEVIL’S REJECTS
DOG SOLDIERS
FRIDAY THE 13TH PT 1 & 2
FRITT VILT
GINGER SNAPS
THE GORGON
HAXAN
HIGH TENSION
HORROR OF DRACULA
HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES
THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE
THE INNOCENTS
JEEPERS CREEPERS
JIGOKU
KWAIDAN
LADY IN WHITE
NIGHTBREED
NOSFERATU
THE OMEN
ONIBABA
POLTERGEIST
PULSE
RE-ANIMATOR
ROVDYR
SAW
SLEEPAWAY CAMP
SUPSIRIA
THIRST
VAMPIRE LOVERS
VAMPYR
THE VANISHING