Down A Dark Alley: The Best of Horrorfest

April is defiantly the right time of the year to feature horror reviews. Completely. Snark and joking aside, summertime is when so many horror movies actually take place-especially slasher films. Presented to you with no commercial interruptions will be write ups penned while spending the fall months viewing plenty of gory, violent, creepy or not so frightening depictions of terrifying events unfolding onscreen. Enjoy.

Breaking them down by decade, I'm going with the earliest horror film of the bunch I watched, a true classic featured on my Top 50 Horror Movies List, one that was penned a couple years back (and since then I have seen the Cushing/Lee remake, which is great also):

Among all of the Universal Monster movies, this one reigns supreme as being the best of the bunch, and rightfully so. Despite being rather short and to the point, Frankenstein manages to capture (with some changes thrown in) the essence of Mary Sheily's classic tale of a monster, his mad creator, and the problems that arise when one violates the laws of nature. Or simply good taste, considering Frankenstein's creature is a mismatch of body parts, someone else's brain, and he's forced to wear large and uncomfortable platform shoes.

Clearly inspired by the famous German Expressionist movement of the silent era 1920s, the movie is largely build up, with the payoffs scattered throughout. You have several incredibly iconic scenes ranging from the "Its Alive!" mad scientist moment, to the infamous little girl by the lake scene, and the usual angry mob of villagers wielding pitchforks and torches, seeking to destroy the beast and end its reign of terror. Whale handles all of this with a daft touch, trusting his actors and knowing very well that he clearly had a great story on his hands.

We'll never know if Bela Legosi could have pulled off the part of the Creature, and that is rather left for debate. All I know is that Boris Karloff does a fantastic job, using pure emotional responses and giving away what he's thinking purely through eye and facial moments. Its a tough task, but he pulls it off wonderfully, and as a result he passes into horror legend. I haven't seen the endless remakes of this movie, although I'm sure the Hammer Studios version featuring the duo of Cushing and Lee is a must see. 95

Scare Level (out of 10)=3.0



Oh and of course the listening of already posted ones is here, too.

*Frankenstein (1931)

*The Horror of Dracula (1958)

*Black Sunday (1960)

*The Haunting (1963)

*Blood and Black Lace (1964)

*Black Christmas (1974)

*Its Alive (1974)

*The Omen (1976)

*The Brood (1979)

*Altered States (1980)

*The Howling (1981)

*The Burning (1981)

*Scanners (1981)

*Videodrome (1983)

*Children of the Corn (1984)

*Night of the Creeps (1986)

*Near Dark (1987)

*Bad Taste (1987)
*The Jason Vorhees Collection:
 -Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
-Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
-Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
-Friday the 13th Part VIII: The New Blood (1988)
-Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
*Troll 2 (1990)
*Dead/Alive (1992)
*From Dusk Till Dawn (1995)
*Dog Soldiers (2002)
*The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
 *The Omen (2006)
*The Screwfly Solution (2006)
*Severance (2006)
*Let The Right One In (2008)
*Halloween II (2009)
*Zombieland (2009)