Monster Films 101

[megoat]

Me and my lady have decided to watch a bunch of old monster flicks this October and I'm wondering where we should start. We both have not seen any in years and are basically starting from scratch. Can anyone recommend a good set to pick up? We're not interested in slasher flicks just classic monster movies. I know Universal makes dvd sets but I believe they are grouped by monster. We would kind of like more of a sampler or something. Any suggestions? Cheap would be good too!

[HardyGirl]

How about a good William Castle flick? Mr. Sardonicus, The Tingler, The House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, etc.

[palitoy]

I'm not really up on my game anymore but if you can find Hammer released a nice VHS three pack of their first mummy/dracula/frankenstein films that should be cheap now.

My wife really got into the Hammer films when I showed them to her, she also loved "Dracula's Daughter" which to me, is superior to Dracula.

[palitoy]

Actually the Hammer movies seem pretty reasonable on DVD

HORROR OF DRACULA - NEW DVD - Hammer Classic - (eBay item 130156977308 end time Oct-01-07 18:08:56 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/HORROR-OF-DRACULA-NEW-DVD-Hammer-Classic_W0QQitemZ130156977308QQihZ003QQcategoryZ61 7QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Curse of Frankenstein + Taste the Blood of Dracula NEW - (eBay item 290163632585 end time Sep-29-07 16:09:58 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/Curse-of-Frankenstein-Taste-the-Blood-of-Dracula-NEW_W0QQitemZ290163632585QQihZ019QQcategoryZ617QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

[toys2cool]

how about some good old 80's movies like One Dark night,Fright night or Vamp :grin:

[Earth 2 Chris]

If you want to run through a Horror primer I'd see these:

Universal:

Bride of Frankenstein; The best of the bunch.
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein: This way you get to see Lugosi as Dracula without sitting through the snorefest original. Plus the Wolfman and of course Frankie (played here by Glenn Strange)
Creature from the Black Lagoon: A little more contemporary. You can't beat the Gillman suit either.

Hammer:
Horror of Dracula (I see you have this one on the way)
Curse of Frankenstein
Curse of the Werwolf (great werewolf flick)

For kicks, watch Young Frankenstein too. Esp. after watching the Universal movies.

Modern Horror:
Halloween: Nothing quite sets the mood like the original
Nightmare on Elm Street: Avoid the sequels, but this one is scary!
Bram Stoker's Dracula: This one is very well made. Keanu Reeves' "dudeness" can't even totally de-rail it.
Sleepy Hollow: Totally rewrites the story, but man it has an eerie, Halloweeny, Hammer vibe about it! Plus Christopher Walken!

Chris

[thunderbolt]

There's a double feature of THem! and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms available on amazon for less than 10 bucks.

[megoat]

So are the Hammer flicks a more watchable classic experience than the Universals?

[ramsey37]

I know that at least in the case of "The Mummy", Hammer actually approached Universal and got the rights to retell the 1933 Universal version. If you watch them back to back, it's very easy to see that Hammer borrowed alot from both the Imhotep and Kharis versions from Universal.
I would also recommend picking up a copy of Universal's Hammer Horror Series boxed set from a couple of years ago. I bought it mostly because it included "Curse of the Werewolf" and "Brides of Dracula".

[jwyblejr]

As I stated in another thread,FYE has a boxed set of classic horror DVDs for twenty bucks. Wal-Mart's should have a bunch of classics on DVD as well cheap,seeing as how it's that time of year.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

For the classics I'd recommend:
-Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. The Karloff ones.
-The Mummy. With Karloff.
-Phantom of the Opera. The silent one with Lon Chaney.
-The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, The Creature Walks Among Us.
-The Black Cat. With Karloff. (I'm detecting a theme....)

50's and 60's:
-Them!
-Earth VS the Flying Saucers
-War of the Worlds. The original.
-The House on Haunted Hill. The original.
-The Haunting. The original.
-Fiend Without a Face.

70's and up:
-Killer Klowns From Outer Space
-Return of the Living Dead. One and two are good.
-Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.
-It's Alive! With the mutant baby. If you can find it. (I've been looking...)

And pretty much ANY Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode.

Don C.