CAT PEOPLE (the original, though the remake is goofy fun if you're in the
proper mood, but see the original first--I was lucky enough to see it in an
art theater). Or most of the rest of the films made by Val Lewton's
production unit at RKO Pictures in the 1940s. THE BODY SNATCHER (not one of
the three films based directly on Jack Finney's THE BODY SNATCHERS) is notably
good for a chill.
THE HAUNTING (based on a Shirley Jackson novel).
PSYCHO (closely based on Robert Bloch's novel).
No-budget '60s classics: CARNIVAL OF SOULS, SPIDER BABY, NIGHT OF THE LIVING
DEAD (if it lives up to its hype, DEMENTIA 13 might go on this list).
BURN, WITCH, BURN! (based on a Fritz Leiber novel, script by Richard Matheson
and Charles Beaumont)
MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, the best of Roger Corman's "Poe" movies (script by
Charles Beaumont and R Wright Campbell), and the one which rips off Ingmar
Bergman the most.
NIGHT OF THE WOLF, Bergman's best horror (among those I've seen so far).
THREE CASES OF MURDER--despite the title, all three stories in this 1950s Brit
anthology film are are at least borderline horror--the first is extremely
disturbing, and no borderline about it.
Fringy, but worth mentioning: WOMAN IN THE DUNES, ORPHEUS (the Cocteau film),
PEEPING TOM (like PSYCHO, borderline suspense)
BLACK SABBATH is probably my favorite Mario Bava of the ones I've seen.
...and, if you can find it, the Robert Bloch adaptation of his own short story
"The Weird Tailor" for THRILLER, an early '60s US television anthology series,
is the most memorable horror a/v presentation/experience of my early
adolescence. I often wonder how it would hold up now (Stephen King puts in
the good word for Bloch's adaptation of his own "I Kiss Your Shadow" on BUS
STOP, a more obscure '60s antho show, in DANSE MACABRE...wouldn't mind seeing
that, either). Missed THRILLER's brief run on Skiffy Channel, alas, and
haven't seen it since the mid-70s, aside from the remarkably bad choices made
to lead the videotape program.
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