Every Halloween some jack o’lantern out there on the internet comes up with a new list of his ten favorite horror movies. I thought I’d give it a shot and do the same. But I could not limit myself to merely ten titles. You try it! So I’ve decided on my 50 faves, arranged alphabetically below.

Putting together any list of scary movies is a daunting task, and a highly problematic one. For instance, should one include films that are frightening, but essentially grounded in another genre? War of the Worlds (the original, not the tragic remake) might make the list, but calling it a horror film somehow takes away from its topnotch sci-fi credentials and its status of being inspired by two non-horror geniuses: H. G. Wells and Orson Welles. Likewise, I can’t watch To Kill a Mockingbird without being scared to death during the scene where Boo is hiding behind the door. But that doesn’t make it a horror film. And what of a film like Psycho which I see is on many people’s lists? I am certainly terrified while watching it, especially at its shriekingly bizarre climax, but it’s much more a thriller in the Hitchcock tradition than my own pick, Maniac, which used a similar idea but in a much more horrific vein, and featured extraordinary work by master makeup artist Tom Savini.

Then what is one to make of a film like Freaks? This masterpiece by Tod Browning, who also directed the brilliant Dracula, was marketed as a love story, not a horror film. But its candid depiction of carny life (cast seen above) freaked out audiences in the 30s when it was first distributed. The film was immediately pulled from theatres and only became a cult classic decades later. Same with the extremely eerie Peeping Tom by Michael Powell, who glamorized the world of ballet in The Red Shoes. A film about voyeurism, Peeping Tom was banned in some cities and wasn’t rediscovered until the 70s after its horrific content was no longer as controversial. It’s still difficult to watch however.

As for the bucket of blood-letting pix in the 70s and 80s, they do little for me. What makes a film scary is suspense, not splatter. Think of The Spiral Staircase starring Dorothy McGuire. What the director did with lighting and sets is far more frightening than anything in the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street series. I would have included it here, but ultimately it’s a thriller and a mystery, not a horror picture, and I think The Uninvited, which deals with real ghosts rather than serial killers, is a much better example of the genre. Today’s horror films, Saw and Hostel, for example, strike me as merely lessons in audience disdain. These are exploitation flicks in the worst sense and offer little in the way of artistry or style. If they were funny, they might have some redeeming quality. But they don’t fit the “so-bad-it’s-good” criteria that make a horror film a classic. A good example of that is the hilarious X, below, starring Ray Milland. He also appears in Frogs which is better than laughing gas.

Sometimes a remake is better than the original. Some felt that way about Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And The Fly. I beg to differ. The Paul Schrader Cat People was pretty good, but in my book, the best remake was The Thing (1982) by John Carpenter (of Halloween fame) which improved upon the silly “intelligent carrot” concept of the original by Howard Hawks.

You might differ with me on some of my choices. The low-budget Fear No Evil, filmed in Alexandria Bay in New York’s Thousand Islands (and in Boldt Castle) is rarely discussed in lists of good horror films. But like Martin, by George Romero, it revolutionized the idea of what a vampire movie could be. It came out around the same time as The Evil Dead which received accolades and made its director a star. But I find Fear No Evil a much more innovative movie. Another forgotten vampire classic is The Velvet Vampire starring Michael Blodgett. Set in the desert of the Southwest, it breathed new life into an aging genre by using shocking sex and 60s hip counter-culture trappings with wit and style.

I am not sure why I’ve included three Brian DePalma movies (Sisters, Carrie and The Fury), and left out Phantom of the Paradise, one of his best movies. It’s campy and scary but somehow it just didn’t give me the chills the other three selections have. Same with Rocky Horror Picture Show, which deserves to be on many lists but not on this one. I might be stretching a case here or there for the sake of argument and in generating an intelligent debate. Plan 9 From Outer Space is usually confined to the list of the world’s worst movies. But when I saw it as a child on Chiller Theater it almost made me into a raving lunatic. I was haunted by its imagery even though I couldn’t follow the story. Seeing Vampira pass through a cemetery still gives me the creeps.

In most cases, rather than listing a title, I’ve used the film poster as an illustration. But to liven things up a bit and to make this list more of a puzzle, I’ve used some stills from the pictures. See if you can name the film based on the photo I’ve chosen. Please also keep in mind that in some cases I’ve included movies that are simply favorites of mine for reasons that have nothing to do with how truly scary they are, but in how campy or funny they can seem. Joan Crawford’s Berserk and Strait-Jacket won’t keep you up at night but they’ll certainly cause you to laugh your head off.

And which is my favorite? That’s hard to say. Depends on one’s mood. But if I were to look back on my entire film viewing experience, there’s one movie that stands out and lingers in my memory. Carnival of Souls. Set partly in an abandoned amusement park outside Salt Lake City, Carnival of Souls (seen below) was a drive-in indie that despite its minuscule budget created an atmosphere of unbearable gloom. Its eerie organ score set the dark, menacing tone. Even now, just thinking about its ghoulish hitchhiker gives me shivers.

So take a stroll down memory lane with me through the graveyard of yesterday’s haunting masterpieces!

No doubt I’ll remember several amazing motion pictures I forgot to include here immediately after posting this. But that’s the fun of writing a blog. One can go back in later and switch it up. So enjoy my selections and let me know what you think. Boo!