I found this survey at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule and decided to take part. I’m a die-hard horror fan, and as it’s nearly Halloween I thought why not? With the multitude of memes in which we take part each week, this blog has come a long way from its humble origins as a mere record of our sex life. If you don’t happen to fancy horror as a cinematic genre, I won’t take it personal if you decide to skip this entry. If you do – or if you’re willing to go along for the ride – you might get an idea as to what, beyond sexy naked women, makes me tick.

1) Favorite Vincent Price/American International Pictures release.

While AIP is responsible for many of the horror films I love, including the eight Poe-flavored Vincent Price/Roger Corman films, without a doubt, my favorite film from this category is The Abominable Dr. Phibes.  I read about this one in back issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland when I was a budding horror geek (I remember discovering that it was Vincent Price’s 100th film), and upon finally viewing it I was captivated, not only by Price’s performance, but by the character of Phibes himself, a disfigured madman hell-bent on revenge against the doctors he believes responsible for the death of his wife.  Under the direction of Robert Fuest, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is as full of over-the-top action set-pieces as any big-budget summer blockbuster.  The film climaxes with a heart-pounding scene involving an acid trap that seems almost like a precursor to the Saw movies.  Watch the trailer:

2) What horror classic (or non-classic) that has not yet been remade would you like to see upgraded for modern audiences?

I am largely unimpressed by the recent spate of Hollywood horror remakes.  I feel they are crass big-budget spectacles that almost totally lack the frequently small-budget charm of the originals.  But Jack, you may say, your beloved Frankenstein was a remake.  Well, technically not; Universal’s 1931 version of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, is actually an adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel, and not a remake of the earlier Thomas Edison film, but I see your point.  I don’t dislike all remakes; I simply miss the days when Hollywood may not have had any original ideas, but they did a better job of packaging them with new titles.  Though technically not a horror film, the film that I think could actually stand a big-budget remake is Toho’s 1962 film King Kong vs. Godzilla.  A legendary monster mash, I’ve enjoyed this film – a classic in my book, at least – for decades.  It’s a film that could stand a more dynamic approach, ideally produced and directed by fans of the giant monster genre, but only if the monsters are realized practically.  No CGI whatsoever.  Watch the trailer for the 1962 film:

3) Jonathan Frid or Thayer David?
I’ve never watched Dark Shadows, but I’ll say Jonathan Frid as I am at least familiar with his character of Barnabas Collins.

4) Name the one horror movie you need to see that has so far eluded you.

I can’t think of too many horror essentials that I’ve yet to see, as I spent my formative years reading about so-called must-see horror movies and then tracking them down at local video stores or watching them on cable.  I’m sure there are some newer horror films that sound good and which I’d like to check out, but no absolute musts, no movies that might make a fellow genre lover say, “You haven’t seen that one yet?  Dude – get on that already!”  The only one I can think of is, perhaps, Dan Curtis’ 1975 TV movie Trilogy of Terror, starring Karen Black and a Zuni fetish doll.  I’m not sure why I haven’t seen this one yet; I’m pretty sure I have a copy around here somewhere.

John Carpenter, whose filmography reads like a list of must-see horror films.  Carpenter might still enjoy the “favorite” designation were his sole contribution to the genre 1978’s seminal slasher Halloween.  In my opinion, Halloween is an essential modern horror film.  Perhaps the essential modern horror film.  It reinvented the horror genre, and gave rise to legions of inferior clones, including Friday the 13th.  Without Halloween, the slasher movie cycle of the late ’70s and early ’80s may never have taken place.  (Yes, I’m aware that 1974’s Black Christmas is considered by many to be the true father of the genre, but no less of an authority than Sean Cunningham has stated that it was Halloween that he was trying to rip off with Friday the 13th.)  Additionally, the fact that Carpenter performed a variety of other roles in addition to directing, frequently writing, producing, acting and contributing memorable musical scores, makes him a very versatile jack-of-all-trades.

6) Ingrid Pitt or Barbara Steele?

Ingrid Pitt.  While I am familiar with the work of Barbara Steele, especially her dual roles in Mario Bava’s 1960 film Black Sunday and 1961’s Roger Corman adaptation of The Pit and the Pendulum, I am much more familiar with Ingrid Pitt’s performances in Hammer’s early-’70s offerings The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula.

7) Favorite 50’s sci-fi/horror creature.

8) Favorite/best sequel to an established horror classic.

Bride of Frankenstein.  As a fan of the Universal horror films of the ’30s and ’40s, I was exposed to James Whale’s adaptation of Frankenstein at an early age.  Though unquestionably a horror classic and quite fun to watch, this film is sadly very dated.  Not just because it’s in black and white, as are virtually all films of the era; or because the entire cast (as far as I can tell) is dead, including then-seven-year-old Marilyn Harris, who played the young girl inadvertently drowned by Karloff’s childlike Monster.  It’s dated because, at the time of its release in 1931, sound had only been a component of feature films for a few years.  Frankenstein is a quiet movie that in some ways doesn’t quite live up to the potential of the sound era.  Additionally, Whale’s extensive experience as a director of stage plays may have contributed to the film’s staid quality, which included many very straightforward, static camera shots.  (A relative to whom I showed the film compared it to watching security camera footage, though I wouldn’t go quite that far.)  Despite the fact that both Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein were directed by the same man, and that a mere four years passed between the films, Bride is the polar opposite of the original.  Infused with jolts (no pun intented) of gallows’ humor, Bride of Frankenstein also makes the most of sound, featuring a memorable score by Franz Waxman; and there is much use made of lighting, camera placement, and overt symbolism and iconography.  Additionally, the film features one of the most intriguing characters from the classic Universal pantheon, Ernest Thesiger’s Dr. Pretorius, not to mention Elsa Lanchester’s iconic turn as the Monster’s Mate.

Watch the trailer:

9) Name a sequel in a horror series which clearly signaled that the once-vital franchise had run out of gas.

The first movie that came to mind when I read this question was Alien Resurrection.  Alien and Aliens are two of my all-time favorite sci-fi films, though I was underwhelmed by David Fincher’s 1992 follow-up Alien 3.  While my enjoyment of Alien 3 has increased with repeat viewings, Alien Resurrection represents the series’ nadir.  I don’t find the designs of the aliens compelling, and the plot contrivance of bringing Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley back as a clone simply doesn’t work for me.  Watch the trailer:

10) John Carradine or Lon Chaney Jr.?

Chaney by a mile.  Although Chaney’s portrayal of Frankenstein’s Monster falls far short of Karloff’s (or even, arguably, Glenn Strange’s), the dual role that he came to regard as “my baby”, the Wolf Man and his alter-ego Lawrence Talbot, was solely his.  He brought much pathos to the character’s five appearances, even in the series’ comedic swan-song Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.  The one character both actors played to which I feel Carradine was better suited was Dracula, a role he played in Universal’s House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, as well as William “One-Shot” Beaudine’s bargain-basement 1966 schlock classic Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.  Though he can’t hope to match the authenticity of Bela Lugosi’s performance, Carradine’s Shakespearean background serves him well as the Transylvanian Count.

11) What was the last horror movie you saw in a theater? On DVD or Blu-ray?

Theater?  Got me.  We make it out to the movies pretty rarely these days, owing to our refusal to bring a young child into a movie theater for a kid-friendly movie, much less a horror film; as well as a scarcity of babysitters in our area and the extensive planning that must now go into theater-going.  As parents, we are no longer able to spontaneously go see a movie.  Accordingly we see most of our movies in the relative comfort of our own home, where the penalty for answering a cell phone during a movie is no more popcorn for you.  The last movie we saw was Halloween III:  Season of the Witch, which we watched last night once the baby had gone to bed.  Of course, we’ve seen it many times; the most recent new horror film we saw was Scream 4.

12) Best foreign-language fiend/monster.

Godzilla, hands down.  I’ve long been a fan of the King of the Monsters, and like James Bond, I enjoy watching the character develop and evolve – or at times devolve – through the course of a decades-long film series.  And while I love the tone of the 1954 film Gojira, in which the monster’s attack on Tokyo is an allegory for the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a child I had a soft spot for some of his more fantastical cinematic adventures from the 1960s and 1970s.  Of particular interest to Little Jack was the abyssmal – and I mean abyssmal, even for me as a young child – 1973 offering Godzilla vs. Megalon, which introduced not only the subterranean cockroach monster Megalon, but also the multi-hued (and strangely mute despite his Jack Nicholson-esque grin) Ultraman ripoff Jet Jaguar.  Watch the trailer:

13) Favorite Mario Bava movie.

As God is my witness, the guy’s name is Dieter Laser.

I have no idea whether Jennifer Connelly did her own stunts.

Watch the trailer:

23) Lara Parker or Kathryn Leigh Scott?

Um…hello?  Is this thing on?

24) If you’re a horror fan, at some point in your past your dad, grandmother, teacher or some other disgusted figure of authority probably wagged her/his finger at you and said, “Why do you insist on reading/watching all this morbid monster/horror junk?” How did you reply? And if that reply fell short somehow, how would you have liked to have replied?

I watched Fred Dekker’s 1987 horror comedy The Monster Squad the other night, and this question reminds me of the severe dressing-down given two of the main characters by their school principal.  The only time I remember being lectured about my love of all things horrific, I just stood there and took it.  Rather than providing an intelligent, perfectly-worded counterargument, I looked down at the floor in shame.  Then, in the middle of the night I got a woodcutter’s axe from the toolshed in the backyard, draped myself in plastic bags, and chopped to pieces everyone in the house.  (Ironic considering that the person who had earlier lectured me wasn’t someone who lived in my house.)  Then I threw the bloody remnants into a conveniently-located acid vat.  Actually, I don’t think I was ever chastised for my horror fandom.  It was something that my parents saw as largely harmless; indeed, my mother had grown up watching Hammer’s 1950s and 1960s horror output.  If anyone disapproved, whether grandparents, teachers or clergy, they kept it to themselves.

25) Name the critic or Web site you most enjoy reading on the subject of the horror genre.

I don’t actually read any of these.  I’m familiar with websites like Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central, Shock Till You Drop, and the like.  And I can think of no real reason why, but I’ve never actually gone to one of these sites to browse, only if I’ve followed a link from elsewhere.  And while I’ve been known to peruse the odd horror-related publication in part for reviews, there is no critic whose work I can say I particularly enjoy or look forward to.

26) Most frightening image you’ve ever taken away from a horror movie.

The final shot of The Omen, wherein Damien turns to smile devilishly at the camera while attending the funeral of his parents.  That the film ends with the Antichrist victorious, and the general public unaware of his existence, is suitably scary, as well as bleak, for the end of a horror film.

Additionally, Aunt Harriet, made up to look like the deceased brother Tony in Paranoiac is something that still disturbs me.  I’d seen a still in a book when I was younger, it made me want to see the movie immediately.