Horror Movie Marathon Day 5 – The Horrific Golden Oldies

There is something to be said about the old fashioned horror movie. You know, the ones that came out before Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th brought us the gory slasher films of the seventies and eighties.

1. The Abominable Dr. Phibes – Number six on my all time favorite list of horror movies is a Vincent Price classic. He comes back from the dead to get revenge on those who killed his wife during surgery. Each death is more creative than the last, and the art deco sets will make your eyes happy.
2. Black Sunday – Barbara Steele stars as a witch who comes back from the grave to try and take possess the body of her look alike descendant. She is a scream queen for obvious reasons, but this is a good reminder as to why Barbara Steele cemented herself in the horror genre.
3. The Last Man on Earth – Also a Vincent Price classic, he plays just what the title suggests. He spends his time trying to cure the vampire/zombie apocalypse. This is the movie that Will Smith’s I Am Legend was based on.
4. Horror of Dracula – Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing did a whole series of horror movies for Hammer Horror. Christopher Lee hated doing them, but you would never know it while watching them.
5. The Screaming Skull – This one has a special place in my heart because Mystery Science Theatre 3000 did a spoof of it. I probably never would have even seen it otherwise.
6. Night of the Living Dead – They’re coming to get you, Barbara. It’s one of my favorite movie lines. This zombie movie was far ahead of it’s time and deserves a viewing if you have never seen it.
7. Dementia 13 – Francis Ford Coppola directed this film about a widow who is going after her dead husband’s inheritance while an axe wielding murderer chases after her.

Honorable mentions from the Vincent Price era: The Fly, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Bat, Mad House, The Fall of the House of Usher, House of Wax, and The Abominable Dr. Phibes Rides Again.