Morella's Best of 2024

"Pineapples on pizza!? Nooooooo!!"

For my 2024 top ten list, I’m going with "Top ten classic horror/sci-fi movies I’ve watched this year but haven’t made a review for…yet." Not the catchiest title but fitting. I did watch several of Christopher Lee’s Dracula films, but didn’t want that to dominate the list, so I took just one from the series that I haven’t reviewed yet. So without further ado, despite the reaction of our sailor friend from The Monster that Challenged the World, here is the list of worthwhile films, in ascending order.

10-This Island Earth. Not as good as I remember from my childhood, but a fun film all the same. The Metaluna alien in the picture I put here is a classic look, although he’s barely in the movie. Scientists are tested by aliens to find the best and brightest to secretly recruit help to save their dying world. Jeff Morrow plays the leader of the slightly silly-looking aliens that runs this operation. The effects are cool for the day in which it was made, but it has an odd and almost jarring flow to the film that really brings it down for me, even as I did still have fun watching it. Some cool ideas that don’t quite work out as well as they should have, but worth a watch.

"I should have held out for top billing."

9-The Skull. Starring Peter Cushing with Christopher Lee, and a cameo from Michael Gough, this one is a good one with an idea that we’ve seen before in other movies and TV shows, but not so much back in 1965. The skull in question is the Marquis De Sade’s skull, and it has deleterious effects on those that are in its presence long, leaving a path of madness and murder in its wake. As expected, Cushing and Lee are brilliant here, and it’s a solid gothic tale. The interaction between the two men is great, and Cushing’s growing obsession with the skull drives a lot of the plot, and his downfall.

"What skull? This? It's just a prop, I swear!"

8-The Monster that Challenged the World. A rather typical black and white monster flick, but an above average one, although the scene I linked in the header is infamous for a reason (it’s actually unintentionally hilarious)! Starring Tim Holt, Audrey Dalton, and Hans Conried (yes, that Hans Conried), strange creatures are discovered in the Salton Sea after some military testing is performed there. Creatures rise to attack those at the sea and in nearby environs. These creatures look more like caterpillars more than anything, but are referred to as mollusks, although their eggs are clearly cloth bags formed roughly in a globe shape, so nothing is perfect. A bit of romance as required by the time, some decent creature scenes, and some needed tension make this one fun, if not as famous as many of its contemporaries. The creatures don’t look amazing, but not as silly as some others of the time either. I also need to point out that despite the title, there are several monsters and not just a single one.

"Again with the nuclear tests? Can't a monster just relax and watch some TV?"

7-The Uninvited (1944). Ray Milland stars in this film about the sordid past of a town and the associated beach house. A brother and sister purchase a long-abandoned home and with Stella, a local woman that the brother is falling in love with, a woman that feels an attachment to the house, they discover it's haunted. Investigating who or what is haunting their new abode leads them on a search through the past and through some murky history of those that once dwelt there. Very atmospheric and well-acted. It has some hints of humor, but it never spoils the seriousness of the situation. It’s one of the earliest ghost stories of this kind that I’ve ever seen, and I never even heard of it before I grabbed the DVD.

"Who you gonna call?"

6-The Black Scorpion. Starring Richard Denning and Mara Corday, it’s essentially Them, but not quite as good. Still fun, with mostly solid stop-motion effects, but for some reason they chose to have semi-human faces on the giant scorpions that make them look silly in close-ups despite them looking more realistic in wider shots. Has an annoying kid that you really want to smack, but it’s more giant monster fun that is worth watching. If you watch this and Them consecutively, you’ll see what I mean. Them is undoubtedly the better film, but this one is great, too.

This is what I'm talking about. Good movie, but man, does this look silly.

5-The Haunting (1963). Starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, and Richard Johnson. A doctor, two psychically sensitive individuals, and the son of the woman funding the investigation visit Hill House and encounter some effective scares, while also having to deal with their own inner demons, fraught nerves, and their often-combative interrelations with each other. Downright eerie at times, with a fantastic location and some very odd characters, it’s a superb ghost story. The interesting thing about this one is we’re never quite sure how much of this is due to an actual haunting, and how much isn’t. There is a lot of drama between the main and supporting cast, and even more within that inner circle of characters. A brilliant film.

I love this for the setting of the film. It's shot perfectly.

4-Scream of Fear (also known as Taste of Fear). Stars Susan Strasberg with Christopher Lee in a supporting role. A young wheelchair-bound woman returns home after news of the death of her father and finds a home she doesn’t know, and friction between her and her stepmother that only grows over time. With her constantly seeing the dead body of her father, but it’s always gone when she summons aid, she isn’t in the friendliest company here. I’m normally not big into psychological horror, preferring gothic, cosmic, or sci-fi, but this one is very good. It has some interesting twists, even if some may be more predictable than others, and was on a DVD collection that I purchased for other films, but this one turned out to be one of the best of the bunch.

"Say that again and I'll park this thing on your toes!"

3-Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. One of Hammer’s Dracula series, and a direct sequel to Dracula: Prince of Darkness, with Christopher Lee, Veronica Carlson, and Barry Andrews. Our ancient bloodsucker again threatens our main cast after they attempt to exorcise his castle with a gilded cross on the main door, which of course is not something he’s happy with. He pursues those that dared defile his ancient home and proceeds to get his revenge. It has an interesting twist in which the main protagonist is an atheist, so he can’t use the symbols of religion to destroy Dracula as he has no faith in them. Not the best Hammer Dracula film, but it is a good one, and the tie-in between this and the previous film is set up perfectly.

People are so rude! Just staking a guy while he's napping like this!

2-Black Sunday (1960). Not to be confused with the 1977 action/thriller of the same name, this one is an Italian horror film that is also known as The Mask of Satan, with English dubbing here. It stars one of the first ever ‘scream queens’ in the excellent Barbara Steele who plays both the main villainess and the main love interest. A witch is put to death by her brother, but not before she curses their family line. A curse that sees her return to take vengeance after two passing academics disturb her tomb. It’s very much a variation of the original Dracula, but it’s a very good one. I really enjoy this one and don’t mind the dubbing at all. The makeup effects are brilliantly creepy for the day, too. I’ve seen some complaints about Steele’s acting here, but I blame the dubbing for that. She was dubbed a lot, despite being English; Corman even dubbed her lines in Pit and the Pendulum, where she starred with Vincent Price. And speaking of Vincent Price...

She has such an intense glare when she wants to, and the makeup here really amps it up too.

1-House of Wax (1953). With Vincent Price, Carolyn Jones, and a very young Charles Bronson! Not Price’s first horror movie, but the one that really started him on this path. Price plays a sculptor whose only desire is the creation of beautiful wax sculptures, but his greedy and immoral business partner has other ideas. While this film does go a bit too far with its ‘Look! It’s in 3D!’ portions, especially the barker with the paddle balls, it’s a great tale of a man who sinks into madness and vengeance for how he was wronged. It was odd seeing Carolyn Jones, who was the original Morticia Addams from The Addams Family TV show, playing such a ditzy character. Price was amazing as always, and his makeup is downright disturbing. A true classic of the horror genre.

"Why did you swap the labels on my skin cream and the acid?!"

And there we have it: ten movies I felt were worth chatting about and that I shall someday write full reviews for the site. One thing I wanted to mention, as otherwise I’m sure someone will think I may have missed it, is that both The Uninvited and The Haunting have been associated with queer coding, something that was actually pretty obvious to me, although it’s more blatant in The Haunting. These two movies are also the most mature of them all, as far as plot and characters I mean, not as far as their rating or onscreen activities. Some have also mentioned that Scream of Fear suggests some of that same coding with the situation of the main character, and I can see where that comes from too.

Regardless of whether you just want some giant monster fun, catch an early foray of the sublime Vincent Price into the genre he is most well-known for, or want something a bit more subtle but still in the wheelhouse of classic horror, you can't really go wrong with any of these ten films.

Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.