Cat People (1942)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
The Haunting (1963)
Hotel (2001) (and here a rare instance of strong, though not total, agreement between myself and Roger Ebert)
Martyrs (2008)
The one television series you should see ahead of all others in this wise:
Thriller (NBC 1960-1962)
8 comments:
Great list! "Carnival of Souls" is one of my favs, as is "Cat People." There are a few on the list I haven't seen, now I will track them down.
I hang my head in shame that I haven't yet seen all of them and not just because of recent release (Martyrs) because I haven't seen Three Cases of Murder or Burn, Witch, Burn.
I've only seen a few of these.
Thanks, folks...and no shame in it...the fact that these aren't NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and the first Universal FRANKENSTEIN are most of the reason they're on this list...which exists in part because of an attempted hipster viral campaign to push THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, which might not be the pernicious waste of time I suspect it is (but probably is), including gratuitous reference to it in a a puff piece on the uses of cell phones as plot points on this morning's NPR MORNING EDITION. Sad, really. (Said puff piece also pushed the US remake of FUNNY GAMES, which is definitely a pernicious waste of time.)
There are any number of films I really need to see the entirety of, that I've seen only bits and/or pieces of (PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK comes to mind), and some no doubt utterly impressive films I've missed altogether (though not usually for lack of trying).
Kate--I suspect your Anglophilia will allow you to enjoy both THREE CASES and NIGHT OF THE EAGLE enormously, although both are (at least in part) from US literary sources...the latter Charles Beaumont's script from Fritz Leiber's novel CONJURE WIFE.
And I love love love CONJURE WIFE, so I'd like to see it, but I don't think it's available yet on DVD (though apparently it is on YouTube in pieces). Better than nothing I suppose. Perhaps if I get this grading done...
There's a PAL Region 2 edition available, with a rather unspectacular reproduction of what I take to be one of the original UK posters...
Great list, Todd. There's even three movies I haven't seen yet! (Three Cases of Murder, The Last Wave, Hotel.)
The only one I'd quibble with is Night of the Eagle; it's good, but not as good as I wanted it to be, given the quality of the source novel & its reputation as a Lewtonequse movie.
I agree that NIGHT isn't up to CONJURE WIFE (it would be very difficult for it to be), but I do like it a lot and one need only look at WEIRD WOMAN, the initial loose adaptation of CONJURE WIFE, to see how much worse it could've been.
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