My #1 choice: Borris Karloff as The Mummy. I was fortunate to see the movie in a theater as a kid. I still remember the Egyptian burial scenes.
Kevin Peter Hall as the "Predator"
We have to consider the eras we wish to talk about. The original Godzilla and/or The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Of course how can we leave out Rodan or the Original King Kong. The giant ants from Them or the Blob.
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
I grew up with these movies as well, and I agree that Karloff as the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon were both excellently scary as was Lugosi as Dracula. I’d add the demon in Night of the Demon. In the modern genre, I’d nominate the monster in Alien.
Time to watch the original King Kong again!
dancers
Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia
I think the scariest I saw was ages back. Le Diabolique............. Spelling????
Original King Kong was 1933-The Earth was flat !
Curmudgeon wrote:
We have to consider the eras we wish to talk about. The original Godzilla and/or The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Of course how can we leave out Rodan or the Original King Kong. The giant ants from Them or the Blob.
If my memory is correct, the Blob was Steve McQueen`s first movie.
SteveR wrote:
My #1 choice: Borris Karloff as The Mummy. I was fortunate to see the movie in a theater as a kid. I still remember the Egyptian burial scenes.
The Thing.....James Aeness played the alien. Old black and white.
Among newer movies the original "Alien" and "Predator" were pretty effective when viewed for the first time but as a young kid, I remember being scared shitless the first time I watched the original Godzilla and King Kong on "Million Dollar Movie."
Did you ever notice the really good monster movies take the time to develop the plot and mood before showing you the monster? You didn't even see King Kong 'til the move was half over. Now-a-days, the opening scene generally shows some hideous creature running amok and then tries to develop the plot. I guess people with a short attention span have to have a quick hit of gratification or they won't take the time to watch a movie.
ddgm
Loc: Hamilton, Ontario & Fort Myers, FL
Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's creature. I remember my mother telling me that at the moment the creature's face was revealed the people in the theatre went nuts with people screaming and some running out. I believe this was in 1931. Modern day, The Alien
47greyfox
Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range
Lugosi and Karloff never failed to amuse, even when in a bad movie.
He died before our time (1930), but Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces, may have been one of the best actors in horror movies, including the Hunchback of Notre Dame and others.
traderjohn wrote:
The Thing.....James Aeness played the alien. Old black and white.
I would rate "The Thing" as the most anxiety inducing film I can think of. I saw it when I was eight years old with a friend a little younger. His mother read me the riot act because Kevin had nightmares for two weeks after that. There is so much to like in that movie. The overlapping dialogue in the office scene in the beginning - that was Howard Hawks who was experimenting with the technique at that time. He had used it in scenes in "Red River" a bit earlier. The scene where they see something in the ice and they fan out to see the size and shape, soon realizing it is huge and is in the shape of a saucer! How about the sled dogs that are found hanging in the plant nursery draining blood to feed The Thing's offshoots? It is still a spine chilling film!
BTW the directing credit goes to Christian Nyby lll, who was Howard Hawks' editor, I believe. But it is known that Howard Hawks was the actual director as well as producer.
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