October 11th - Halloween and Horror

Good evening fiends and ghouls,

Many people assume that because I like Halloween that I must like horror.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  I'm strictly a "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", "Mad Monster Party" and original Universal Classic Monsters kind of guy.

My kind of "horror" films are the horror, suspense and science fiction films made by Universal Studios from 1923 to 1960.  From Wikipedia "The series began with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, both silent films starring Lon Chaney. Universal continued with talkies including monster franchises Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. The studio's leading horror actors during this post-Chaney period were Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney, Jr.."

I know a lot of folks love the blood, the gore and the REAL horror depicted in the movies of the 70's, 80's, 90', and beyond, but most of them give me nightmares and life is terrifying enough to put that stuff in my brain.  Every now and then I do watch a newer horror flick and sometimes they surprize me and I actually enjoy them.  Monster movies are my favorite - slasher and gore for gore sake - things that could actually happen - not my cup of tea.

I'll stick to Scooby Doo and Disney.

Happy Haunting,

Mark Harvey