Hammer, Poe, and Remakes! - start of the 60s in horror - 1960-62

 Wow, these three years in film were generally so enjoyable, and we had a blast watching them. So many were new. So many were creative remakes. So many were ground-breaking for horror cinema at the time. I really think the 60s are gonna be one of my favorite decades. Let's dive right in!

1960

Psycho: I had seen this one before. Wasn't anything too crazy this time around. I actually got to teach this one in my class on horror last week. It's always interesting seeing the gender politics of the film and the many ways it codes the body.

Jigoku: A Japanese horror film that's basically Inferno. Didn't care for this one a whole lot? It wasn't that horror-y, and it was so drawn-out with its plot. Furthermore, I really didn't care for the characters.

13 Ghosts: I thought this was a cute story! It was pretty funny, and I enjoyed the Casper-ish feels of it. I'm surprised it got a serious horror remake in the 21st century.

Horrors of Spider Island: You want to laugh at bad movies? Add this one to your list. You won't regret it. Were-spiders and pornography. You're welcome.

Little Shop of Horrors: Despite being a gay, musical nerd, I've never seen either Little Shop movie. But the first one at least was such a treat! Jack Nicholson was the right amount of creepy in it, and I feel like I get the plant. At least once a day, I tell my fiance: "Feed meeee. I'm hungry!"

World of Vampires: This was a Mexican horror film. I wasn't able to finish it honestly. It just wasn't that gripping with its story.

Vampire and the Ballerina: This was an Italian horror film. This one was okay. It bragged about its sex appeal, but me being me, I was pretty underwhelmed by it.

Never Take Candy from a Stranger: This was a Hammer film. Not...that horror-y? Like it was about as much horror as To Kill a Mockingbird. So it had that vibe of a small town with underlying evil. But instead of racism, it's pedophilia. It was super engaging as a story, and I'd recommend it for sure.

Horror Hotel: Personally, after all the hype I heard about this movie, I expected better? There were a lot of unanswered questions at the end, and I found the cross mythos of the film cheesy. So, I can't honestly say I was a huge fan of this one.

The Brides of Dracula: The second Hammer Dracula film. I enjoyed this one. It was nice seeing what women vampires could be in the Dracula mythos. Usually in the past woman vampire films, the women are just regular women who happen to be vampires. Here we actually got to see their fangs a bit more! It was enjoyable enough. More cross mythos stuff, but again, I thought the film was fun overall.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll: Another Hammer film of Jekyll and Hyde. This one was good. It did some creative things with the narrative. I thought Christopher Lee did a really good job with this split role.

1961

Creature from the Haunted Sea: Another wonderfully bad film. The costume will make you laugh. The occasional one-liners are a treat. Oh, this is such a joy of a bad film.

The Brainiac: A Mexican horror film. Generally, it's an homage to the Universal horror films. We loved this one. It was so surprisingly good and engaging.

Curse of the Werewolf: First off, the main actor in this is hot as fuck. It was such an all-over-the-place horror movie. I see where the Evil Within novel got its inspiration now! It's like...when you think you know who the main characters are and the main plot is, it moves ten years later. So if you're prepared for that, it's a great movie. Otherwise, be prepared to be confused.

Konga: Eh, another gorilla movie. Wasn't good.

The Mask: A tribal mask movie. All about delusions. Also not good.

Pit and the Pendulum: YASS! I loved this movie so much. The twists were unexpected, even for me. Vincent Price was amazing here, and so was Barbara Steele. Ah, my heart. Can't recommend this movie enough. Plus iron maidens are always great.

Shadow of the Cat: A cat slasher...like...the cat avenges the murder of its owner by killing the people responsible. The idea sounds super campy, but it was actually executed very believably. Like the cat intentionally trips people and stuff like that. It's actually a good treatment despite the concept.

1962 

Carnival of Souls: A very, very Lynchian movie. Be prepared for lots of fun trippy alternate-reality sequences. I really loved this movie. It was so fun, and while the ending is pretty predictable, it's so satisfying.

Awful Dr. Orloff: Awful.

Cabinet of Caligari: We were pretty excited for this as a remake, but it really wasn't a remake? As a stand-alone film, I loved it. It wasn't that predictable, and it was very entertaining, and we kept trying to figure out where it was going.

Day of the Triffids: Having loved the book, I was excited about this movie. The plant monsters were super cool, and the plot was engaging. Also, the blindness aspects DEFINITELY inspired Bird Box. Definitely.

Tales of Terror: A super-fun Corman-Poe-Price movie. If nothing else, you have to watch the Black Cat segment. But really all three of the tales are super cool. They have fun with Poe, rather than trying to be super faithful. They don't pretend to be verbatim tales, and they excel all by themselves.

The Premature Burial: A Corman-Poe film, but without Price, the film just didn't do well. It wasn't that interesting, and the ending was just odd.

King Kong vs. Godzilla: I surprisingly liked this one. The racial elements would be fascinating to close read some more. Just the way that Kong codes as racial other still, even in this Japanese version. Plus, America's insistent belief that the Japanese version probably had the other monster winning. 

Captain Clegg: A Hammer film. Pirates! Sin and I were digging this film super hard. It was just such an entertaining story, and we kept rooting for the pirate over and over and over. So enjoyable.

Phantom of the Opera: Yes, another one. This one went way out there in changing the plot, making this version of the Phantom being the most sympathetic of ALL of them. I'm noticing Hammer films are often interested in villainizing employers fairly often. I'm here for it.

---

So my favorites of the three-year period are probably...Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, Little Shop of Horrors, and....Cabinet of Caligari. It's tough. There were soooo many good ones here.

Sin says his favorites were, "Horror Hotel. Jigoku. Captain Clegg. Phantom of the Opera. And Tales of Terror." He's wrong.

Comment question of the day: Do you have a favorite Hammer horror film?