House on Haunted Hill

My favorite horror movie of all time! This 1959 William Castle film stars Vincent Price as Frederick Loren, an eccentric millionaire who invites five people to a haunted house, offering $10,000 to whoever can stay the night once the doors are locked at midnight. After everyone is locked in, ghosts and other beings start haunting the house. A lot of the effects are hokey nowadays, but the story is fun and Vincent Price is always a great actor. “They’re coming for me…. and then they’ll come for you!”

Return of the Living Dead

 The best zombie mover ever made! This film takes a more humorous approach to the zombie uprising, as well as having one of my favorite explanations as to why they eat brains. What’s the story? After a medical supply worker opens a barrel of toxic goo, the dead start coming back to life, and there just so happens to be a gang of punks (one of whom is famed scream queen Linnea Quigley) having a party in the graveyard. Can they survive?

Bride of Frankenstein

Really you should just watch every Universal Monster movie. But I tried to limit the amount of them on this list. One of the ones you absolutely must watch however, is “Bride of Frankenstein”. The monster teams up with Dr. Pretorius, a friend of Frankenstein, in an effort to convince him to make a bride for the Monster. Does love transcend death? You’ll have to watch to find out! I would say out of all of the Frankenstein movies out there, this one does the best at making you sympathize with the monster, but that is in part due to the incredible acting of Boris Karloff.

Plan 9 From Outer Space

Widely regarded as the worst horror movie ever made, this 1959 Ed Wood film is one you really need to watch. This was Bela Lugosi’s last film, he died part way through filming it. How did they continue? They had another actor play him, but hide his face behind a Dracula-style cape! This film also stars Maila Nurmi, famous for playing Vampira, a famous LA horror host in the ’50s. This film is nonstop cringe, but that’s what has cemented it in place as a must-watch for horror fans.

It came from beneath the sea

An H bomb causes a giant octopus to attack San Francisco. What else do you need to hear about it? The stop-motion animation of the octopus alone is enough of a reason to watch this.

The House on Sorority Row

I’ve never been the biggest fan of slasher films, to me they tend not to be very good. 1982s “House on Sorority Row” however is easily one of my favorites in the genre, and definitely overlooked by most. A prank pulled by sorority sisters leads to unintended consequences, and one by one the sisters are being murdered.

The Town that Dreaded Sundown

There was a remake of this film in 2014, but you should watch the original. Coming out in 1976, makes this one of the original slasher films. A hooded figure known as “the Shadow Killer” haunts the town of Texarkana. This film is also loosely based on the real Texarkana Moonlight murders.

Svengoolie

Svengoolie hosts a shock theater show Saturdays on MeTV. Each week a new B-horror movie is shown. What can you expect? Bad jokes and neat trivia on the movie in question. If you are too lazy to actively find a bad horror movie to watch, let Sven do the work for you. The show is also kid friendly, so this is an easy recommend for people with children.

Elvira

“Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” is easily the most famous horror show hosts. The average episode consists of Elvira lying on a velvet couch, making dirty jokes and taking jabs at how bad the episode’s movie is. A lot of the movies are bad, but every once and a while something is played that I end up really enjoying, such as “The House That Screamed”. She was successful enough with her LA-based Shock Theater show that she also made a movie. I am recommending both the show and the movie, if you enjoy camp and shlock, you will enjoy both. Also fun fact, she dated Elvis!

Fright Night

Speaking of horror hosts. You suspect a vampire has moved in next door, what to do? Ask your local horror host to help kill the vampire of course! “Fright Night” has a bit of horror, a bit of humor, and great practical effects. The theme song is pretty rad too.

Dracula

1931 was a great year in horror. Universal came out with two really good horror movies, “Frankenstein,” and “Dracula”. Bela Lugosi in my opinion will always stand out as being the most iconic Dracula actor (Christopher Lee is good too though). I think the most iconic scene in the Universal Monster films comes from this movie, as Dracula steps down the stairs to introduce himself to Harker. “Listen to them, Children of the night. What music they make.”