Still Another Ten Great Horror Movies (#31-40)

I love movies from all decades, and the fact that a movie was filmed in black-and-white is not enough to prevent me from seeing it. Those old Universal monster movies, starring Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, and others, are especially re-watchable. Favorites include “Bride of Frankenstein” and “The Mummy,” the latter of which is leagues better than this past summer’s Tom Cruise misfire of the same name. It wasn’t long ago that TCM aired the original “The Invisible Man,” starring Claude Rains as the title character. The special effects during the moments when Rains removes the bandages over his now-transparent face are phenomenal, and I can only imagine how horrifying that must have been to see on the big screen in 1933.

Of course, “The Invisible Man” is tame by today’s standards. Few horror films made before 1970 hold up today as viable scary movies, which makes it interesting that, when I published my first top ten list on this subject four years ago, I declared Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” released in 1960, to be the genre’s all-time best. I did make sure to include a couple of old movies in my latest top ten list, although the oldest one, 1973’s “The Wicker Man,” is still four decades newer than “The Invisible Man.” On a more contemporary note, one of the entries, “Get Out,” was released just seven months ago!

Enough explaining! Below is my latest list – the fourth in a series – of great horror movies, ten at a time:

Continue reading “Still Another Ten Great Horror Movies (#31-40)”

Ten More Holiday Songs (11-20)

It is Christmas Eve. The wine has been uncorked to breathe, the oven is preheating, and Molly the Dog is sleeping by my side as I proof-read this entry, my last post for 2015.

The weather is humid and uncharacteristically warm, so I don’t foresee any snow falling between tonight and tomorrow morning. Either despite that or because of that, I have been in a real “sounds of the seasons” mood. Yesterday, I got home from work and gave a listen to each of the songs in last year’s blog post, The Top Ten Holiday Songs. I might jostle a few of those rankings around, but I still find it to be a good, diverse list. And of course, with so many seasonal songs to choose from, I couldn’t stop at just ten.

Ten More Holiday Songs (with YouTube links):

Continue reading “Ten More Holiday Songs (11-20)”