20 Favorite Horror Films - Final Edition (finally)

18) "The Evil Dead" - It's been a very long time since I've seen this one, but I remember it being so original in terms of camera angles and shot selection. I also recall a genuine sense of menace (which is getting increasingly rare in horror films) and a very unique and likeable hero in the form of Bruce Campbell's Ash. There's always been something about the deep, dark woods setting that works for me; maybe it was growing up near a large, wooded riverbank that fueled this link. Whatever the reason, "Evil Dead" (and it's first sequel) were fast paced, scary and full of a sense of impending doom amidst the dark humor and action.

19) "The Night Stalker" - This is the only TV movie on my list (though there were many great ones made during the 1970s) and it's every bit as scary as some of the theatrical releases. It was an early attempt to place the vampire in a thoroughly modern setting (1972 San Francisco) and give him a very contemporary and unique adversary. Carl Kolchak (the admitted inspiration for Fox Mulder) was a cantankerous, stubborn maverick reporter who followed his instincts for a story no matter where it led him or who thought he was insane for doing so. To have a vampire set up residence in Las Vegas made a kind of grisly sense owing to it's "open all night" atmosphere. Darren McGavin was great in the role and the vampire was suitably powerful with no trace of the "tortured soul" characterization that's become so common of late. He was just a kind of ancient unstoppable evil and he met his match in the ingenuous, unrelenting Kolchak.

20) "Island of Terror" - This is a bit of a wild card entry, one I'm almost sure that no one has heard of. It's a Hammer film from the 1960s, and features some of the most skin crawling monsters I've ever seen. People and animals on an island begin to die horribly, having their entire bone structure consumed from without by unseen assailants. The predators turn out to be "silicates", a type of mutated monster borne from (of all things) experiments to cure cancer. Peter Cushing is great (as usual) and the whole film has the kind of creepiness that Hammer excelled at.

Those silicates still give me the willies.