HDC Presents: 100 Years of Horror

[_____V_____]

For the decade of the 1940s, here's the Summation so far:-

Total number of lists received = 9.

IN THE CUT

Cat People (1942) - 9
The Body Snatcher (1945) - 9

I Walked with a Zombie (1943) - 7
The Wolf Man (1941) - 7

Isle of the Dead (1945) - 6

Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) - 5
Dead of Night (1945) - 5
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) - 5
House of Frankenstein (1944) - 5
Son of Dracula (1943) - 5
The Spiral Staircase (1945) - 5
The Uninvited (1944) - 5


DEBATABLE

Bedlam (1946) - 4 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) - 4 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker, realdealblues)
Phantom of the Opera (1943) - 4 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker)
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) - 4 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker, fortunato)
The Devil Commands (1941) - 4 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker)
The Leopard Man (1943) - 4 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker)

Before I Hang (1940) - 3
The Black Cat (1941) - 3
The Corpse Vanishes (1942) - 3
The Fall of the House of Usher - 3
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) - 3 (backed by realdealblues)
The Lodger (1944) - 3 (backed by neverending, seconded by Straker)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) - 3
The Seventh Victim (1943) - 3
The Tell-Tale Heart - 3


MINORITY

And Then There Were None (1945) - 2 (-2)
Black Friday (1940) - 2
Daughter of Darkness (1948) - 2
Dr. Cyclops (1940) - 2
Dragonwyck (1946) - 2
House of Dracula - 2
Man Made Monster (1941) - 2
Night Monster (1942) - 2
Rebecca (1940) - 2 (-2)
She-Wolf of London (1946) - 2
The Invisible Man Returns (1940) - 2 (backed by realdealblues)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949 Animated Short) - 2
The Monkey's Paw - 2
The Mummy's Curse - 2
The Mummy's Hand (1940) - 2 (backed by realdealblues)

A Light in the Window (1942) (Despare)
Black Magic (1944) (The Ugly Duchess)
Bluebeard (1944) (neverending)
Devil Bat's Daughter (1946) (hammerfan)
Dr. Renault's Secret (1942) (The Ugly Duchess)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1943) (neverending)
Hangover Square (1945) (The Ugly Duchess)
I Married a Witch (1942) (fortunato)
King Of The Zombies (1941) (Fearonsarms) (-1)
Son Of Ingagi (1940) (Fearonsarms)
Spooks Run Wild (1941) (fortunato)
The Brute Man (1946) (The Ugly Duchess)
The Devil Bat (1940) (realdealblues)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) (fortunato) (-2)
The Ghost Breakers (1940) (Despare)
The Ghost Ship (1943) (Despare)
The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) (realdealblues)
The Jade Mask (1945) (fearonsarms)
The Mad Ghoul (1943) (The Ugly Duchess)
The Mummy's Ghost (1944) (realdealblues)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942) (realdealblues)
The Portrait (1948) (Despare)
The Red House (1947) (The Ugly Duchess)
Valley of the Zombies (1946) (hammerfan) (-1)
Woman Who Came Back (1945) (roshiq)
Yotsuya kaidan (1949) (roshiq)



12 films have made it in, by a vote percentage of over 50%.

We need to select EIGHT more films from the other two sections (preferably from the DEBATABLE section). 6 Honorable Mentions from the rest to be chosen later.

I have posted the names of the HDC-ians who sent in their unique choices, i.e., those which got only 1 vote, and that vote was theirs only.

Please post your reasons for choosing your unique films, your backing for the MINORITY & DEBATABLE selections, and why you feel your chosen ones should be included in the 8 remaining spots.

OR

If everyone is in agreement, we can toss in the SIX choices which got 4 votes each (right now in the DEBATABLE top), and proceed to choose TWO more from the rest. That way we end up with our selected 20.

So, go ahead. Post your views.

[neverending]

I agree with the 6 with 4 votes. I also advocate for The Lodger. Laird Cregar's performance as Jack the Ripper is chilling. It's one of the few Ripper films that isn't gimmicky in some way. It treats the case in a straight forward manner.

I would vote to eliminate both And Then There Were None and Rebecca, as neither of them are horror movies. One is a murder mystery and the other a noir thriller. For the same reason I would eliminate The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. It's what we would now call a paranormal romance.

I would chop out both zombie movies, just because they're really awful films.

[Fearonsarms]

Originally Posted by neverending

I agree with the 6 with 4 votes. I also advocate for The Lodger. Laird Cregar's performance as Jack the Ripper is chilling. It's one of the few Ripper films that isn't gimmicky in some way. It treats the case in a straight forward manner.

I would vote to eliminate both And Then There Were None and Rebecca, as neither of them are horror movies. One is a murder mystery and the other a noir thriller. For the same reason I would eliminate The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. It's what we would now call a paranormal romance.

I would chop out both zombie movies, just because they're really awful films.

If you vote for the six with 4 votes then you are casting six votes out of the EIGHT V said we could cast. Add to that your vote for the lodger and the votes you are trying to cast against films then that is a TOTAL OF 12 VOTES you are casting in this post. V said we could only vote for or against EIGHT films.

Or have I misunderstood this:-

We need to select EIGHT more films from the other two sections (preferably from the DEBATABLE section)

[_____V_____]

Originally Posted by Fearonsarms

If you vote for the six with 4 votes then you are casting six votes out of the EIGHT V said we could cast. Add to that your vote for the lodger and the votes you are trying to cast against films then that is a TOTAL OF 12 VOTES you are casting in this post. V said we could only vote for or against EIGHT films.

Or have I misunderstood this:-

There's no voting involved here. You can give your opinion as well as to which films can be included/excluded, out of the ones in contention.

We just need to select 8 films from the remaining list, however in the majority.

Any one else willing to back neverending's support of my move? This way, we can seal 6 spots out of the remaining 8, and look to choose 2 from the rest.

Master List adjusted.

[Straker]

I forgot about the 40s debate.... I'll definatly back The Lodger and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man which I think should both definatly be in the final cut. Also happy to second any of the other 4 vote films, all solid films.

[realdealblues]

I would agree on Removing:
Rebecca (1940)
And Then There Were None (1945)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
I don't really think they really fall into what I would consider the Horror realm.

I would back:
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

I would also argue I feel "The Invisible Man Returns (1940)" should be up higher. While Vincent Price was in Tower Of London, to me, The Invisible Man Returns really starts his career in Horror and set him on the path to becoming the Horror Icon he became. It's hard to do a movie where the main character is invisible where we are forced to rely on the actors voice to convince and entertain. Vincent Price with his unique voice gave us a performance to cherish.

I would also argue for The Mummy's Hand (1940). While inferior to the original, it was a new idea that allowed the series to continue on in a whole new direction. Dick Foran and Wallace Ford are like a preview of the later Abbott and Costello movies with their comedic performances and while you could argue that adding the "comedy element" to a horror sequel may have started with Bride Of Frankenstein, I think more of what we see today came from ideas that started from this movie.

The others I would back are too low to ever go anywhere but I wanted to at least throw those ideas out there.

[_____V_____]

Master List edited according to the latest opinions.

Let's hear some more on the debating points raised by realdealblues, and if you are of the same opinion as me, neverending & Straker, feel free to come forth and say so.

[_____V_____]

Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man will make the cut into the Top 20, sealing it's place.

Anyone else willing to back Neverending and Straker here? Any counter-arguments for realdealblues?

[fortunato]

I'd actually like to back The Beast With Five Fingers, one of the cleverest and most stylish horror films of the decade. A strong, relatively early example of the stylish, low-key look that helps define gothic horror films.

[_____V_____]

Excellent. The Beast With Five Fingers makes the cut too.

We now have 14 finalised. Six more to go.