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submitted mine.
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Though IMDB only categorized it as a "Drama", but understanding the influence or contribution it has on the genre, shouldn't we consider Jungfrukällan aka The Virgin Spring on the the list?
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Though it might be overlooked among such a wealth of classic films, I want to urge people to remember Targets.
Its low key story of an aging horror movie star disarming a sniper at a drive in theatre neatly encapsulates the transition from old school to modern horror not only in films of the era, but the world itself at that time. Peter Bagdonovich burst upon the scene with this film, and after the brilliant The Last Picture Show, he never made another great film. This is also Boris Karloff's last great performance. He fretted over filming the long speech in the hotel room, but after a few stiff drinks with director Bagdonovich, he nailed it in one take. This low budget masterpiece is a great statement of its times. It IS horror, and it transcends horror. Please include it in your lists. |
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You really made me want to watch this |
I agree with the quote. The film is really good and is an interesting satire for the time, especially considering Boris Karloff plays an old horror movie actor from the 1930s and 1940s who does not like where horror movies are going (which is surprisingly similiar to how the real Boris Karloff probably was). I watched it on Netflix and then bought it for thirty dollars. I highly reccomend it, as well.
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--------------------------------------- Thank you to fortunato for submitting the 2nd list of choices from the 60s, and thanks to Sculpt for sending in a small list for the 60s as well. We would love to see your other choices too, Sculpt, not only for the 60s but from the 50s as well. Let's keep them coming, folks! |
I had to agonize over this one! My initial list contained 23 entries. I easily eliminated 2 low budget sleaze-fests, which, while both great films that perfectly exemplified horror films in the 60s, just weren't the true top-notch quality of the others. It then came down to a contest between Fall of the House of Usher and The Haunted Palace.
House of Usher lost the contest for a couple of reasons- I know a lot of others will include it on their lists, and I knew I wanted Tomb of Ligeia on my list. It covers the same themes as Usher, and features one of my all time favorite Price performances. Many, many, many, many really, really good films didn't make the cut. I grew up in this era, and let me tell you, it really was an exciting time for a young horror fan. Society in general at that time was experiencing a lot of loosening of boundaries and experimentation. This showed up a lot in horror films. Horror was in, in a big way. The classic films were liscened for TV for the first time, and every major market had their own horror host on Saturday night TV. ESP, UFOs. ghosts and other such topics were the daily fodder of talk shows and magazine articles. Combined with that, the TV news was full of real life horrors like the Viet Nam War and the Boston Strangler. Horror films reflected this in films such as Psycho, Repulsion, Witchfinder General, and Targets. We had met the enemy and he was us. Humans were the monsters. Hammer's Evil of Frankenstein revealed a truly MAD scientist who was a cold and evil man. He was far more frightening than the creature he created. That was the legacy of horror films in the 60s. Humanity was exposed as the monster. Sure, there were exceptions- The Birds- but this was the dominant paradigm. Many will point to the 30s or the 70s as the greatest decade for horror films, but for me, it will always be the 60s. |
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That said, I still only have about 12-15 movies nailed down on my list and another 10+ fighting it out for the final spots. |
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