More classic films… many, many old horror movies from last spooky season. Too many, really (if there is such a thing).

1896 – The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat – a train arrives, 19th century people long dead amble around the platform… high octane cinema for 1896. Did people run from the train in the audience as legend claims? I have doubts.

1907 – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – a fairly mediocre non-canonical alleged film adaptation of the Jules Verne novel (only not really at all). I was unimpressed even for a super short silent.

1907 – The Doll’s Revenge – a surprisingly good “killer doll” movie from the silent era… only a handful of minutes but with very good visual gags for the era. It’s worth checking out.

1932 – Vampyr – a pretty decent near-silent (but not actually silent) vampire film out of Germany. Kind of interesting as a bridge between silent films and talkies. Not a great horror movie.

1958 – I Married a Monster from Outer Space – not bad for a 50s creature feature / alien invasion film. Nice look a marital dynamics and how the “other” was treated in that decade (hint: it’d be a different movie today).

1963 – The Whip and the Body – a surprisingly good atmospheric gothic horror / romance film. Really dug its tone and pacing. Perhaps not as naughty as the title suggests these days.

1964 – The Gorgon – an effective thriller with a different kind of baddy than the usual Hammer roster of monsters. It had a solid first and second act but kind of flubbed the finale.

1965 – Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors – a pretty predictable anthology collection of horror films from its time. Some of the shorts were more original than expected and it was nice to see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing doing their thing (and a disturbingly young Donald Sutherland too).

1971 – Demons – a stark and bleak Japanese samurai film that’s very evocative and grim. Love its aesthetic and dour fatalism.

1971 – The Velvet Vampire – an interesting but pokey 60s/70s era groovy vampire flick. Kind of an early wave feminist desert horror film. Doesn’t hold up so well except as a curiosity and peak at the early 70s.

1972 – The Night Stalker – a tv movie that eventually got turned into the old 70s show Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I remember catching some of those old episodes back in the day but had no actual memory. Pretty good flick.

1972 – Something Evil – a very bad Steven Spielberg work-for-hire tv movie about a haunted house. He would produce a much better version with Poltergeist… just watch that again instead.

1973 – Ganja & Hess – an art house Blaxploitation vampire movie? I guess. Really kind of hated this cryptic story with characters without character. Was remade by Spike Lee recently as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus… which was just as cryptic.

1978 – Cyclone – a petty mediocre and overlong natural disaster / survival film set in the south seas after a cyclone. Dozens of people are left afloat and starving for a very long time as they wait for the rescue planes. Kind of boring but also a little hard core in terms of how they survive.

1979 – Up From the Depths – a pretty dopy Jaws knockoff… except it’s not a shark. It’s a giant prehistoric fish. Like there’s a difference. Movie gets a lot of shot value from filming on location in the Philippines which is really the only thing it has going for it.

1980 – The Ninth Configuration – William Peter Blatty’s head-scratchingly odd, funny, chaotic descent into madness and existential horror. It’s a lot of things and thoughtful is one of them. It doesn’t immediately jump out as anything cohesive but it works its way to it.

1981 – The Burning – pretty decent but very generic summer camp slasher film.

1981 – Ghost Story – a pretty decent ghost story that has one foot in classic films and the other in ’80s horror. Pretty good watch with a good cast.

1982 – Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker – a strange and weirdly gay-obsessed horror flick from the ’80s. Kind of didn’t get the point of a lot of it and it fumbled the ending.

1982 – Roar – Genuinely as certifiably insane as I’d heard. There’s not a story, there’s a making-of. The filmmakers had a few dozen full-sized lions (and other big cats) and threw their actors in with them. The fear on their faces is not acting. Madness! Worth watching for the crazy.

1982 – The New York Ripper – a pretty good Mario Bava slasher film. Not particularly unique but pretty well done for the time and budget.

1983 – The Boxer’s Omen – a gonzo bizarro horror film steeped in Eastern mysticism. Kinda worth watching to see how far they’ll go.

1984 – Boggy Creek II: The Legend Continues – a sequel to the 1972 Boggy Creek film which was a faux documentary. This is not… it’s a more traditional and barely functional narrative. It’s bad.

1984 – Invitation to Hell – a pretty decent and cheesy ’80s tv movie and one of Wes Craven’s earlier films. Better than his other two tv movies anyway… and a fun mix of sci-fi and demonic horror.

1986 – Demons 2 – a bad sequel to a surprisingly decent demonic attack film. It doesn’t make a lot of sense and doesn’t really do anything interesting or scary.

1987 – StageFright – not a very good – and very generic – backstage slasher film.

1988 – Cellar Dweller – a good looking horror film that looks and feels like a Tales from the Crypt episode. Too bad it has significant pacing issues. Nice idea though.

1988 – Return of the Killer Tomatoes – a bad sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Changes focus from an alien invasion parody to a mad science parody. Stars George Clooney… figure that one out.