MonsterGirl’s 150 Days of Classic Horror!

Good Evening… MonsterGirl here, to let you know that I’ve decided to give myself a challenge. I know I write a lot about obscure gems and I do love shining my flashlight on the deep cobwebby corners of cinema throwing a little Joey radiance on films you might not ordinarily think of.

But I got to pondering… people don’t truly know what my personal favorite films are. I do have lists on IMDb but I don’t spend a consistent enough amount of time here at The Last Drive In showing you who I am through those particular films that have absolutely resonated with me over the years. Masterpieces or little artistic offerings that I love so much I often find it hard to articulate the way I feel about them, and wind up chickening out like Don Knott’s Luther Heggs (The Ghost & Mr. Chicken) for fear my post just won’t do them justice.

So I thought to myself, it’s really time I start posting at least little snippets of the films that are my chosen favorites, but because I go off on tangents and get so easily distracted by the glorious regalia of schlock, cult and melodramatic fanfare out there, the challenge to myself would be to list my TOP classic horror films, YET use only ONE photo, and ONE brief paragraph about the film working through my list til the end of the summer.

I started out with trying to list 100. I failed miserably. Then I thought okay let’s do 120. Again that was as big a flop as Barney Fife’s sidecar or one of Grandpa Munster’s wily inventions!

I managed to come up with 150, with my sneaky way of fitting in a bunch of extras by making certain films pairings. Some I chose to couple because they just naturally seem to be companion pieces for each other. The stories somehow connect, or the imagery or confluence of vision seem to match up with the filmmakers who made them.

What ever the reason, it’s my list so you’ll have to just accept that I am not one who can narrow down her loves to one thing… It can’t be done. I’ve tried. Even with that proverbial gun to my head, I had to keep the list rolling. How can I leave out certain films, that I just adore. I was like that as a little MonsterGirl with my stuffed animals. I’d pile each and every one of them into my bed at night with no room left for me, for fear that even one might feel abandoned. That’s the kind of gentle and thoughtful MonsterGirl I am. So 150 ‘errr… or so, is truly an accomplishment for me, truly it is…

Now, I can tell you that Rosemary’s Baby and The Haunting are my all time obsessions, and soon I really do need to talk about both of them as well as Tourneur’s Curse of the Demon and expand on Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s beautifully Gothic The House That Screamed 1969 with Lili Palmer And there’s a few others that are absolutely going to wind up being examined extensively here at The Last Drive In at some point. But if long winded me waited til that got done, you’d never learn which classic horror films are my beloved total favs. The ones I’d pick to show as a marathon on Halloween or at my own real Drive- In Movie Theater if I ever won the lottery and managed to open up a fabulous retro Drive-in Theater/Cat Sanctuary. That’s a dream of mine you know…

And you know, something funny happens when you post YOUR list on IMDb. People leave the most delightful (exasperating) unsolicited comments like, “why didn’t you include…” or “nice list but, what about … ” And I find myself becoming like Daffy Duck who uncovers the pearl in the giant clam and goes off on his little tirade spewing, “It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s all mine, you understand.”

That’s the point of making my own list. Because it’s MINE….. So if you don’t see a film here that would be YOUR choice, don’t take it personally. Make a list of your own, and I’ll be the first to come and toast it, bring it slippers and pet it’s head. In fact, please feel free to let me know what YOUR favorites are. I encourage you to do just that. But this is MY LIST, mine, mine all mine… get the picture?

Another essential thing to take note of here is that I can not possibly qualify which films are better than the rest. I won’t nor can’t do that. I think It’s theoretically impossible to compare different films and decide which is the best in order of rank. Each has it’s own unique set of qualities and inherent atmosphere. All I know is that I love them, so they made my list. To facilitate things, I’ve put them in alphabetical order. Not from better to worse. I hate qualifying things anyway or lists that try to elevate one film by diminishing another by quantifying them.

Some could be considered Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy hybrids, or Suspense/Horror hybrids. The one’s I’ve chosen seem to fall nicely into the classic horror realm even if their is a science element to them because there is the presence of the supernatural. Also within the contexts of what makes a suspense film delve into a horror narrative , I consider if it contains a rather grotesque, brutal or savage set of details, that’s how I’ve chosen to elevate them to the rank of horror film and not just a suspense story. This again is my own personal opinion.

So don’t think that I love 13 Ghosts the most and White Zombie the least, or that I’m batty because I think that anyone who carries around a hat box containing a women’s severed head as was the case in Night Must Fall, qualifies as horrific. That’s just how I’ve organized things here. And I’m certain someone will over look this little explanation anyway and argue with me that Night of The Living Dead should be Number 1. It’s inevitable that the peanut gallery will speak out…

Again, this challenge is just a way of forcing myself to fill my blog with the films that fascinate, titillate and inspire me. A personal challenge to only write ONE paragraph, with ONE defining photograph from that film, ONE image that sums up the narrative and nothing else. No long-winded synopsis or MonsterGirl’s theorizing to the four directions and not my usual visual presentation that goes on til the cows come home…

So now that I’ve finished my post for the Mary Astor Blogathon I’ll start this, and of course I’ll still be releasing a few features and smaller running posts like A Trailer a Day keeps the Boogeyman Away and Postcards From Shadowland etc. I’ve had a bunch of interesting ideas on the slab since the House of Usher crumbled and fell, so I’m looking to present these 150 little posts throughout the summer. I’ll watch and tell you– as if we were in an elevator only going up a few floors– about my favorites as I count down through the 150 or so, (er, hum) classic horror films.

If all goes well, I might just do the same for my top Classic Film Noir, Classic Suspense/Thriller, and Classic Sci-Fi/Fantasy films.

Here’s a sneak peek at the list is in alphabetical order: I hope some of your favorites are on here too!