Out of the Inkwell

Day 28

My list of favorites

Everyone has a list of favorites songs, baseball players, books, scrapbooking stores (Kim are you still reading this?) and movies. When people ask me what is my favorite single film of all time, I don't have an answer. How could I narrow down thousand of choices to just one movie?

But in the spirit of this blogging effort, here goes some of my favorite horror films. Now these are movies I have watched and will continue to watch repeatedly. These are films I will pass down to my nephew Douglas. These are movies that I want played in the background of my memorial service. Hell, they could be my memorial service – "Mike's last words were 'Enjoy the show.'"

Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
and Son of Frankenstein
The Black Room
The Black Cat
The Raven
The Island of Lost Souls
King Kong
The Most Dangerous Game
White Zombie
Supernatural (hard to see, but worth it)
Murders in the Zoo
Bedlam
The Cat People
The Body Snatchers
The Wolf Man
The Monster and the Girl
The Mummy's Hands
Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein
Captive Wild Woman (yes in the same list as Bride of Frankenstein – I make no sense!)
Haunted Stranger
Fiend without a Face
The Cat and the Canary (Dick Gordon's version)
Horror of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Brides of Dracula
Kiss of the Vampire
The Revenge of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Must be Destroyed
Scream of Fear
The Tingler
13 Ghosts
Homicidal ( so sick, so twisted)
The Doctor Phibes movies
The Raven (1963)
The Comedy of Terrors (much better than The Raven)
The Masque of the Red Death
Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son-in-law (just the birth scene at the beginning is worth watching)
The Evil Dead Trilogy
Shaun of the Dead
Targets
Dog Soldiers
Blair Witch Project
The Kingdom ( yeah it's a TV show, but I saw it in a movie theater)
Mr. Vampire
Encounters of a Spooky Kind
Planet Terror (but not Deathproof)
Not on DVD yet, but I'm buying it: Zombieland

As you can tell, I'm not much into gore. I don't mind some moistness, but I've never been a gorehound. I like the roller coaster ride of a good horror film and the battle between good and evil.

I appreciate "Night of the Living Dead," but I can't say it is a favorite. It is a good film, though. I've never sat through the first "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" movie although I watched all of the second. As I recall, it made little sense. Italian zombie or cannibal movies are not my thing. I don't understand their appeal. I don't like the latest rash of torture porn movies. I don't want to understand how they could be entertaining to people – "Yup, I love that scene where they melted her eyeball" is a phrase I heard at Rock and Shock.

Call me a wuss or worse. I don't care. I know what I like. I'm sure I've missed some titles.

© 2009 by Gordon Michael Dobbs