CC's Top 100 Classic Horror Movies

I’ve created my list of the top 100 Classic Horror movies of all time. “Classic” is here defined as being released in or before 1976. Feel free to criticize it, deconstruct it, or if you feel appropriate, praise it. What movies did I miss? What did I rate too high? Or too low? What did I get just right? Anyway, here’s my list, and if you have enough gumption, feel free to post your own top 100list or top 10, or whatever, just have fun with it.

1. King Kong (33)

2. Psycho

3. Bride of Frankenstein

4. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (20)

5. Jaws

6. Witchfinder General / The Conqeror Worm

7. Dracula (31)

8. Pit and the Pendulum

9. Frankenstein (31)

10. Night of the Living Dead

11. The Invisible Man

12. Phantom of the Opera (25)

13. The Exorcist

14. The Mummy (32)

15. The Thing From Another World

16. The Old Dark House

17. Masque of the Red Death

18. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

19. Black Sunday

20. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

21. Horror of Dracula

22. Freaks

23. Blacula

24. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

25.The Black Cat (34)

26. White Zombie

27. A Clockwork Orange

28. Bedlam

29. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (39)

30. The Wolf Man

31. Rebecca

32. Nosferatu (22)

33. Theatre of Blood

34. Cape Fear (62)

35. Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

36. The Body Snatcher

37. Mad Love

38. The Curse of Frankenstein

39. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (31)

40. House of Wax

41. House on Haunted Hill

42. Creature from the Black Lagoon

43. Phantom of the Opera (62)

44. The Unholy Three (30)

45. Gojira / Godzilla, King of the Monsters

46. Vertigo

47. Deep Red

48. I Was a Teenage Werewolf

49. The H-Man

50. The Raven (35)

51. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (41)

52. Little Shop of Horrors (60)

53. The Lost World (20)

54. The Blob

55. Castle of Blood

56. The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms

57. The Giant Gila Monster

58. Curse of the Werewolf

59. The Abominable Dr. Phibes

60. Dead Men Walk

61. The Birds

62. Mystery of the Wax Museum

63. The Last Man on Earth

64. Island of Lost Souls

65. The Monster (25)

66. Doctor X

67. Them!

68. The Raven (63)

69. The Cat People

70. Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror

71. Destroy All Monsters

72. The Mad Monster

73. Die! Monster, Die!

74. Murders in the Rue Morgue (32)

75. The Black Room

76. Werewolf of London

77. The Flesh Eaters

78. Plan 9 From Outer Space

79. Black Friday

80. The Haunted Palace

81. Hunchback of Notre Dame (22)

82. Rodan

83. Two Thousand Maniacs

84. Frenzy

85. Nightmare Castle

86. The Beast with 5 Fingers

87. The She Beast

88. King Kong Vs. Godzilla

89. The Killer Shrews

90. The Ape Man

91. Dr. Phibes Rises Again

92. Tower of London (63)

93. Hunchback of the Morgue

94. Don’t Look in the Basement

95. Revenge of Frankenstein

96. Black Sabbath

97. House of Dracula

98. Dracula, Prince of Darkness

99. The Leopard Man

100. The Mad Magician

I am a Monster Kid, and What That Means

I grew up a monster kid. I'm not exactly sure what that even means, but it's a label being used a lot these days. There is even a quick guide to help determine if you, too are a monster kid on this blog.

To the best of my knowledge it simply means I loved monsters when I was a little kid growing up. According to many articles, I'm in good company. There is an entire magazine dedicated to monster kids. According to one source, the term was not coined until 1995 by someone on the internet. Forrest J. Ackerman can certainly count himself as one of the original monster kids. In modern times, Guillermo del Toro can certainly count himself as a monster kid. Certainly, Author Ray Bradbury, and Moviemaker Ray Harryhausen are counted as other famous monster kids.

To my understanding, a monster kid is simply anyone who grew up watching and loving monster movies. One of my earliest memories of my love for monster movies was when the 1976 version of King Kong was first released on television in a two night event, and my grandfather encouraged me to sit with him and watch it when he was babysitting me. I was immediately hooked on King Kong.

It's sometimes funny how one small event in your childhood can have such a large role in developing who you become later in life. It makes one wonder if, for instance, I would have grown an interest in monster movies anyway, or if this event was the cause of it all.

Anyway, after that, I was in the library with my mother one day when I found the Ian Thorne Monsters series of books on Kong, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Dracula, and all the rest of the great monsters. I read them all several times. Every time I went to the library, either public or at school, I would check out one of these books, or another one similar on monster movies, how to make them, the actors who played in them, or anything else on the topic. Then one day in the third grade, I found the novelization of King Kong by Delos Lovelace, and it became the first real book I read.

Like most monster kids, I then found a hosted horror movie show in my area. It was The Late Great Horror Show on WJET-TV channel 24 in Erie, Pa. Here I finally found some of the most famous horror monsters such as The Mummy's Curse, Frankenstein, and what became my favorite, Godzilla!

A few years later, we got cable. This opened up a whole new world of television to my developing young mind. Included in that world was certainly the world of monsters, particularly those on WWOR channel 9 in New York on Thanksgiving Day and the Friday afterward. But I could still never catch the 1933 version of King Kong, nor could I catch another favorite of mine, King Kong vs. Godzilla. Then one night, King Kong vs. Godzilla was scheduled to come on the other cable channel 9, WGN in Chicago. I snuck up, and watched it in the middle of the night. Finally, a brand new cable channel came out called American Movie Classics, and they aired the original Kong and Son of Kong.

At the beginning of each week, I used to (and still do quite often, actually) check the television schedule to see what monster movies were coming on that week. Then my whole week was scheduled around the movies that would air. This was just before my family got a VCR. When we did, Godzilla, King of the Monsters on another hosted horror movie show, Super Scary Saturday on WTBS, hosted by Grandpa Munster, was one of the first thing I recorded, and King Kong on AMC (back when American Movie Classics actually showed classic American movies) was soon after.

Fast forward a few more years, and I was in my early twenties. I had rediscovered a lot of those famous monster movies, such as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and all the other Universal horror monster movies.

But by this time I was looking for something a little bit more. I wanted to discover the original stories that these movies came from. One day I borrowed The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and read it in one day. This made me thirsty for the other original horror and sci-fi monster stories. I got a copy of Dracula by Bram Stoker, and this became my all time favorite novel, and shortly after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. At this point I was hooked for life. There's no turning back now.

As an adult, I now have become a collector of action figures, which are pictured throughout this article. I'm sure there are many other Monster Kids out there. I hope this lends a little light on what that means.

Why writers need to make New Year's Resolutions

It is a new year, and time to make those promises to yourself that (hopefully) you will keep the whole year through. It is very rare that I make New Year's resolutions because I want to be sure to keep them. The ones I have made and been able to keep include no longer flipping off other drivers in the car, and that one still gives me trouble from time to time.

But as writers, we all have an obligation to make that same resolution year after year, even if we are sure it will not be kept. But hopefully we will keep those resolutions. You know, the ones like, lose weight, exercise more, stop drinking (yeah right), save money, and as writers we all have to make the resolution to write more. Therefore, everyone raise your right hand and repeat after me:

"I promise to watch only the Ren and Stimpy Show, to make underleg noises during the good scenes, to wear unwashed lederhosen every single day, for the rest of my life."

No wait, that's the wrong resolution. Here is the correct one:

"I promise to write more this year and be distracted less, to finish my major projects, and to submit my work until I become a published writer."

Give it a try, and hopefully you'll be as successful as I am. No wait, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Well, you know what I mean.