Three years ago, for our October feature we did 31 Days of Classic Horror, covering a film for each year from 1957-1987. This October, Chris suggested we go even further back into the archives, doing the same thing for the thirty-one years from 1956 back to 1926. The basic criteria were the same as for the previous: we took the highest-ranked film with 1,000 votes on the IMDb, and tagged there as in the horror genre. However, this time we did not limit this selection to English-language films only.
The same rule about not re-reviewing films recently watched applied, but was a lot less trouble in this ‘Vintage’ selection. Indeed, it only applied twice. The highest-ranked qualifying film for 1954 was the original Godzilla, which we wrote about 18 months ago. So that was replaced by another atomic-age monster movie, in Them! Similarly, 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was covered in our vampire feature (that makes sense, trust me!). More of a problem this time round was simply the lack of candidates. For example, 1950 only saw nine horror films released at all according to the IMDb, none of which reached even six hundred ratings, far short of the thousand we wanted. For those years, and a couple of others where the top picture wasn’t really horror, I’ve used my executive privilege and picked a film, based on number of ratings, score and – let’s be honest, what looked interesting and was accessible.
We’ve also started in the present era, and gone back into the past, because… Ok, I didn’t feel like kicking off with a near two-hour, silent, German expressionist movie. You need to work up to these things. And probably stock up on vodka miniatures. So we began in 1956, watching films which are likely easiest on contemporary eyes, and have most in common with the modern films to which we are used. We’ll then work back to the less conventional – I could use the word ‘primitive’, if feeling argumentative – works of cinema history. Over the course of the month, the reviews will appear below, one per day, so this will be where you can catch up. They’ll also be appearing on the home page, as and when. The image at the top should offer some clues!
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) October 1, 2025
What have we learned from this journey? Well, it has been a bit of a mixed bag. There were certainly some films which deserve their place in the pantheon of cinema classics. However, that certainly wasn’t the case for all of them. In some cases that may be due to the cyclical nature of the horror genre, though on occasion even “bad” years produced good entries. But there are certainly movies whose high ratings felt inexplicable to me. I freely admit this may be down to cultural or temporal issues. Newsflash: I live in Western civilization, circa 2025. But the fact that I could still appreciate highly some of these does suggest it was not entirely a “me” problem.
I discovered fairly early on that I needed to be somewhat flexible with regard to the genre. Considering some entries here as “horror” required squinting at them from the side, in subdued lighting. I gradually realized that horror is a genre that gradually developed into the form we now know, foregrounding the darker elements from genres like crime, thriller and fantasy. Fortunately, I’ve never been a slave to horror, and the films I enjoyed most here, were not necessarily the ones which were most clearly part of the genre. I certainly gained respect for some actors and directors, through being able to see more of their work: Lon Chaney, Tod Browning and Boris Karloff are all people for whom I leave October with a greater appreciation.
I suppose technically I could push even further back, and do 31 Days of the Beginnings of Horror. Though it’d probably be just thirty, covering 1896-1925, since the first horror movie is generally considered to be Georges Méliès The House of the Devil, from 1896. Since that runs less than four minutes, it would at least be a quick watch, though I’m not sure I could write a thousand words about a film of such brevity. While there are some leftovers and near-misses that I’ll end up reviewing at the start of November, I’ve probably reached my limit for films with cobwebs on them, and will go elsewhere for next October’s horrorfest. All suggestions for themes welcome!